Cross Training-Conclusion: Mark 8:35-38

Last week in our beginning look at these verses, we watched as Jesus took the 12 on an emotional roller-coaster. Peter had just laid down his great confession that Jesus was, in fact, “The Christ, the Son of the living God”. There is little doubt that the 12 fully expected that Peter’s confession was to be the last cog in the wheel of a political revolution that would sweep from the northern part of Israel throughout the entire Nation. They would be by Jesus side as He led His people in a conquest of all their enemies and established His kingdom once and for all. But instead of sitting them down and laying out the battle plans for the conquest, He made clear to them that not only would He not be leading a political revolution, He would, instead “suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed”. He did go on to state that He would raise from the dead three days later, but we get the impression that they completely missed that part of His message. As you might expect, this was devastating news to them, but rather than let them sit around and sulk, He invited the surrounding crowd to listen in as He delivered a challenge.

The Challenge-from Jesus for those listening was to Come After Him. The 12 had already dropped everything to Follow Him, now Jesus opens up this call to the crowd that was gathered there that day. But before they had a chance to answer in the emotions of the moment, Jesus lays out a 3-Fold Command that all who would chose to Come After Him must be prepared to obey. 1st, they needed to Deny Themselves. To Deny Themselves went well beyond denying themselves of something that wasn’t a necessity of life, similar to what you and I might do during the Lenten season. It meant to “disown oneself completely”, literally a turning of your back on your own self to instead follow Jesus, no matter what that may entail. The next command was that of Cross Bearing, that is they needed to be willing to give up their own life for the sake of the cause of Christ. Lastly, Jesus was giving them a command of Loyal Obedience. Which meant they, just like the 12 had already done, must be willing to drop everything and Follow Him.

For you and me, we have the 20/20 hindsight of Scripture, as a result, we know that Jesus wasn’t asking them to do anything Her hadn’t already done. Jesus had already left the splendor of heaven to come to this earth, to be born in a cattle stall and laid in a feeding trough and eventually Bear His Own Cross, that He might pay the penalty for our sins. The crowd there that day would learn that same lesson in the coming months. We closed out last week by noting that jesus was calling those present with Him that day, as well as us today, to a significant 2-Fold Paradigm Shift, which is where we will pick up this morning. With this brief review,

Would you please stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word? Next Slide

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.”

May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of His Word. Please be seated.

As I mentioned a few moments ago, from 3-Fold Command, Jesus moves to challenge the crowd to a: Next Slide

2-Fold Paradigm Shift. Vs. 35-37

As we looked at towards the end of last weeks message, in this 2-Fold Paradigm Shift, Jesus is challenging the crowd to put on lenses that are counter culture, counter to how they had been raised. This shift is so significant that the lenses we use must be completely different. In Jesus 3-Fold Command, He is calling His true followers to daily deny themselves, take up their cross and follow Him. As a result of Jesus commands and the following 2-Fold Paradigm Shift, we are going to need lenses that are so focused on one thing that we can’t even see anything else. He was challenging us to do the unthinkable. That is why for an illustration, we looked at using this rifle scope as opposed to the lenses we might normally use. Does anyone remember what makes this scope uniquely beneficial for Jesus call? (It removes our peripheral vision), in other words a scope enables us to focus on one thing and one thing only. Anyone that has used a rifle scope knows that they are also equipped with crosshairs. In a certain sense, Jesus call is to be so focused on His will for our lives that His will is in the crosshairs of the scope.

The first Paradigm Shift Jesus is calling for is: Next Slide

Paradigm Shift 1: Losers Are Keepers. Vs. 35

In verse 35 Jesus says; “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the Gospels will save it.”

The first Sunday of this month, the greatest annual sporting event in our country took place. Anyone here know the name of the event? Yep, the SuperBowl. For the vast majority in our Nation, most didn’t get to watch their favorite team. One of the most interesting things about the Superbowl is that people rarely take bathroom breaks or snack breaks during the commercials. We do those things during this game so we won’t miss the commercials. In fact there are now whole shows that revolve around Superbowl commercials. A 30 second ad in this years Superbowl ran $5.5 million. Just about every ad was designed to give you the impression that there was some sort of product out there that you just can’t live without. Commercials are designed to get me to focus on.......well on me!

Well Jesus does the opposite, in these verses He is challenging the crowd to completely ignore their own personal needs and focus instead on the needs of others. That’s what He is saying when He says “but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospels will save it.” Focusing on the cause of Christ is to focus on Him and others and not yourself. This challenge is so paradoxical to anything they had ever experienced, that He is telling them that if they would willingly lay down there temporal lives, they will gain for an eternity. To give up a little bit now, that they would reap benefits that will last for all eternity. Really, in many ways this goes back to the illustration we used with this rope a year or so ago. Jesus is letting us know that we need to take our focus off of the red part of this rope (do you remember what the red part of the rope represents?) Our life here on earth. (What about the white part of the rope, what does it represent?) He is telling us to take our focus off of the red part of the rope, our life here on earth and instead focus on the White part of the rope, which represents our life in eternity. Yes, we will experience loss, and in some cases significant loss, during our time here on earth, but the loss we experience here on earth will pale in comparison to the eternal gains, not only in their overall value, but on top of that in the scope of their length of time. Keep in mind that the there is no end to the white part of the rope, so any sacrifice we make for Jesus or “sake of the Gospel” reaps benefits that never end.

The reality is: Losers become Keepers!

The next paradigm shift is: Next Slide

Paradigm Shift 2: Profit Is Loss. Vs. 36-37

As most of you know, before coming to Liberty Chapel, I spent 19 years working in the investment arena, and I can tell you this is a major Paradigm Shift! Similar to the 1st Paradigm Shift, Jesus is challenging His listeners to have an eternal perspective. To take their focus off of the Red part of the rope and picture in their minds what they couldn’t actually see, the white part of the rope. To willingly sacrifice the here and now for what lay ahead.

Charlemagne ruled most of western Europe as the Frankish King for over 40 years. He was an intimidating man who was known as a warrior king. He was also known as somewhat of an evangelist, although most of his “Christian” converts took place at the blade of a sword. It was said that his last few years of his life he had many regrets at how he ruled and how he lived. Upon his death in 814, he had amassed an incredible wealth, in fact he was buried with a rather large treasure surrounding him.

“One hundred and eighty years after his death, about the year 1000, officials of the Emperor Otho opened the great kings tomb, where they found and amazing sight apart from the treasures. What they saw was the skeletal remains of the king seated one a throne, the crown still on his skull, a copy of the Gospels lying in his lap with a bony finger resting on the text: ‘What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?’” (Mark-Jesus, Servant and Savior-Volume One, page 204-R. Kent Hughes)

Who knows wether or not Charlemagne had ever completely surrendered his life to Christ or not? However, in the eyes of many in Western Europe, he had gained the whole world, but that gain is of little value to him now if he didn’t surrender his life to the Lord Jesus Christ.

You know, in many ways for us today, we don’t have to worry about “taking up our cross”. Our life is not endanger because of our faith in Jesus. For us, well our greatest danger is being more concerned with the cares if this world. Accumulating wealth and possessions, toys both big and small. Spending all of our spare time on our own personal pleasures and satisfaction, rather than on living a life with an eternal perspective. There is a part of me that wonders, is that what was on the mind of Charlemagne as he was approaching his death? His life was filled with personal pleasure, great wealth, great treasures, a huge empire, but as he approached his last days, did he think all of that as loss?

If you can, keep Mark 8 in your Bibles marked, but turn in your Bibles to Philippians 3. In Philippians 3, starting in verse 4, Paul spends several verses going over all of his accomplishments, pre-Christ. For his Jewish readers this was an impressive list of religious accomplishments. But look what he writes in Philippians 3:7-8 Next Slide

Philippians 3:7–8 ESV

7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ

Paul knew where his life’s focus needed to be, it needed to be on Christ and nothing else. Everything else in life was worthless. The same holds true for you and me. My focus has to be on Christ and eternity. The profit I am to focus on is not on the here and now but on eternity. Which means there will be times I move from the profit column to the loss column in this life, but in eternity I will be moving from the loss column to the profit column. That is what Jesus is saying in Mark 8:36 when He states; “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul.”

The The world and all it contains is passing away. In 1 John 2:17 we read: Next Slide

1 John 2:17 ESV

17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

I will add to that, when John is writing about abiding forever, he is talking specifically about abiding with God, in His presence, with Him in heaven forever. John understood and taught that eternity is certain for all of mankind, the question is, where will you spend eternity? With God in heaven, or apart from God in hell, there are only 2 choices. “It is incredible to think that anyone would forfeit eternity in heaven for a few fleeting decades of self-indulgence in this life. Yet that is what most people do.” (John MacArthur) We see that in Matthew 7:13;

Matthew 7:13 ESV

13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.

Jesus speaks of those who have the wrong focus, focus on the here and now, on their lives on this earth in the parable of the rich land owner in Luke 12:16-21. Let me read this parable to you.

“The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” ’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

“To gain the whole world but to reject Christ is to lose one’s soul to hell. But to give up everything this world offers for the sake of following Him is to gain eternal riches.” (John MacArthur) Jesus makes this very clear in Matthew 6:19-21, where He says: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Which is why we see the Apostle Paul shift his focus in the passage we read earlier from Philippians 3.

From the 2 Paradigm Shifts, Jesus then moves to open the eyes of the listeners to: Next Slide

The Consequences of Disobedience. Vs. 38

Look at what He says in verse 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.” Jesus is making it very clear to His followers, that all of mankind will one day stand before Him on Judgement Day, and that those who are ashamed of Him and His Words here on earth-in this life, will have no defence on that day. Picture standing in the presence of God the Father’s throne of Judgement. God seated there, gavel in Hand. Jesus is the defence attorney. Please listen very careful to me on this point-for all of mankind (believer and unbeliever alike), the jury will deliver the verdict of guilty, which brings with it an eternal death penalty. For those, who on earth have had their scope, their focus on eternity, who when faced with the rejection, suffering and pain that often times comes as a result of standing strong in your faith in Jesus, as God the Father, gavel in Hand, begins to deliver His judgement, Jesus interrupts, letting the Father know that He Himself has paid their price. Their debt has been paid in full. God the Father smiles lovingly as He looks at His Son. His gavel forcefully hits the strike plate as His word’s echo the last Words of Christ on the cross; “It is finished.....your debt has been paid! Enter into My eternal kingdom.”

But for those who have focused on the here and now, who have been more concerned with living for themselves, living for the approval of the world, for the acceptance of man, refusing to abandon their sin. Jesus stands in silence as God the Father delivers His judgement. Their shame of Him on earth brought about His silence at their time of judgment. The gavel of God the Father forcefully hits the strike plate as God brings forth His judgement. “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”

The Consequence for those who are disobedient, who are ashamed of Christ, is severe and eternal. The question each of us needs prepare for is: Next Slide

What will God the Father say to us as His gavel hits the strike plate, when we face Him in judgement?