"Take Up Your Cross" (part 2)
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Handout
Take Up Your Cross
Take Up Your Cross
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.”
(Recap)
Things every Christian must know:
You must know who Jesus is.
You must know the difference between what spiritual and what is temporal.
You must know what it means to follow Jesus.
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.
explanatory conjunctions...
Why is verse 34 true and important?
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.
You must know what has eternal value.
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.
(not that He needed to) Jesus offers two points of reason to support what He just proclaimed.
Since this life is temporal (as we already noted)
If you set out to “save” all that you have in this life...
In the end you will lose everything.
However, if you forsake this life
FOR THE SAKE OF CHRIST
HUGE caveat.
You will ultimately save something of eternal value.
36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?
Logical argument!
What if you succeeded in all you pursuits in life?
What will happen when this life is over.
If you were the most successful person alive and yet, in the end, all your fortune and success was lost.
You may have enjoyed some years.
But you’re going to spend eternity in a place called hell.
So what did you actually win?
You must know what is at stake.
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.”
“Whoever is ashamed of me and my word.”