Lost to Love w2: Deadly Love

Introduction

Whats up friends! Welcome back to NXT High School. My name is Matt Velasco, if we have not met I want you to know that I am so glad that you are here and would love to meet you before you leave tonight! You’ll hear and see that we say something around these parts, we say that Wednesday night, tonight, is the best night of the week. And we firmly believe it. Not just because you get to hangout with friends and have free dinner and a ton of fun, but also because God has a funny way of showing up in special ways on Wednesday nights here at NXT.

So, if you’re new, thanks for being here! We hope you love it and I want to personally invite you to come back next week.

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Last week we kicked off a new series that we’re calling Lost to Love where we’re talking about what it means for us as follows of Jesus to go from lost, before we knew Jesus, to loved, after we know Jesus. We talked about what is called the Garasene Demoniac, the man who was filled with the Legion of demons, and how Jesus set him free and commissioned him to be the first missionary.

A number of you decided last week to give up your life to Jesus and I wan’t to celebrate that again...

You heard me mentioned C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters last week, so this week we’re going to stick with the accidental C.S. Lewis theme and talk about one of his most famous pieces of literature, if not his most famous- The Chronicles of Narnia. Specifically the moment when Lucy, one of the main characters, hears about Aslan for the very first time. It goes like this,

“Aslan is a lion- the Lion, the great Lion." "Ooh" said Susan. "I'd thought he was a man. Is he-quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion"..."Safe?" said Mr Beaver ..."Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.”

Big Idea

In Narnia Aslan is the great lion who is C.S. Lewis’ representation of Jesus in his made up world. Lewis is making a grand statement here: Following Jesus isn’t safe.

If you’re one of the students who gave up your life to Jesus last week then I hope this shatters your unrealistic expectations of following Jesus. Following Jesus doesn’t mean you’ll be loved by all, you’ll have no pain, no crying, no death, no sickness, no strife in your relationships. In fact, in many cases, it means the opposite. Because following Jesus requires your whole life.

Text Address

In fact, today we’re going to read a super short section of scripture, just two verses, that outline just how true both of these points are and some. So would you open up your bibles to Matthew 10:38-39 and stand for the reading of God’s word.

Matthew 10:38–39 ESV

And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Content

Set Up

there is a high price tag on being a disciple and servant of Jesus Christ. It actually requires something of you. Now, like we talked about a few weeks ago, this something doesn’t earn you your salvation- but this something is because of your salvation. In other words, Your life is not your own once you’ve been saved by Jesus Christ. It’s Jesus’! And in worldly terms that would mean a complete capturing of your freedom- but in Biblical terms it means a complete unleashing of true freedom. Freedom that is found only when you pick up your cross and follow Jesus.

Tonight we’re going to talk about the 3 P’s of picking up your cross and following Jesus. I believe this small portion of scripture has three very important truths for us that bring us to a place just like Lucy… to a realization that following Jesus isn’t safe- but it is good!

The Pain... in the price of being a disciple

The Pursuit... in the price of being a disciple

The Paradox... in the price of being a disciple

The Pain

Matthew 10:38 ESV

And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

This is a bold statement about the cross. We have to remember that the disciples at this time, and all of the Jews living in Israel, specifically Jerusalem, at this time were well acquainted with the cross. Frequently they would see men hauled away to judgement and death on a cross. Crucifixions were public events, so no doubt they had witnessed the full breadth of the pain associated with crucifixion.

Three aspects of this pain are seen in this short verse.

1. The suffering in the pain. The cross brought about a great deal of extreme physical suffering to its victims. Scientists consider it to be one of the most gruesome ways to die because of the great amount of pain that came upon the cross.

Have you ever pondered what it would take to be killed by being hung on a cross? Let me tell you, its hard to stomach. I’m going to walk you through the realities of crucifixion- I’ll warn you it is both evil and gruesome.

First you would be made to carry the cross that you were going to die on up to whichever public place they chose to have you hang for the next 24 hours, if you’re lucky.

Once you got to the location of your execution they would take nails as long as bananas and drive them through your wrists and ankles to bind you to the wooden cross.

Once you were bound they would hang the cross for most of the city to be able to see as the weight of your body pulled down on your arms and make breathing extremely difficult.

In order to breath you would have to push up on your ankles with a nail driven through them in order to lift your chest just to breath. But in order to make this even more difficult they would make sure your knees were bent at around 45 degrees to make it even more difficult to push up to get a breath.

Eventually your legs gave out, and the weight would be transferred to the arms, which eventually would cause your shoulders to completely separate from their sockets. A few minutes later the elbows and wrists would follow. At this point in the crucifixion process your arms would be six or seven inches longer.

Once you could bear no weight on your ankles or arms no longer you would be forced to bear all of the weight on your chest which would immediately make it nearly impossible to breath as the weight causes the rib cage to lift up and force you into a perpetual state of inhalation.

Suffocation would usually follow, and eventually the heart and lungs would stop working as blood drained through the wounds.

All of this took place over the course of usually 24 hours.

But… do we have to endure this pain? No, we do not, because Jesus has already done that for us.

However, Jesus’ point here is this: You will not do well in following Christ if you cannot take physical suffering for His cause. I’d ask you. What are you willing to endure physical suffering for? Because I know for a fact many of you will suffer physically for sports… but will you suffer physically for Christ? You’ll take elbows to the jaw, pucks to the face, broken bones from a fall, and torn ligaments all for the sake of the name of your school or team- but would you do the same for the sake of Christ?

The suffering in following Christ is not only physical, it is mental, emotional, and spiritual too. But it is clear, to pick up your cross promises a level of suffering that can be avoided- but the only way to avoid it is to choose not to follow Jesus.

2. The shame in the pain. To carry and be put on a cross was humiliating. It meant that the carrier was guilty of a crime of some sort, and when we pick up our cross it means that we are guilty of following Jesus.

Friends, following Jesus means recognizing your sin and understanding that it is only the cross that can take away the guilt caused by sin.

To be a disciple of Jesus can mean stigma, shame, and humiliation from the world. But we understand that it is our very need for Christ that drives us to pick up our cross.

3. The sacrifice in the pain. The cross communicates one thing as clear as day: Death. Whoever is hung up on a cross will not step foot on the ground alive again. For us this speaks to the sacrifice of one’s life. To be a true disciple of Christ one must be willing to sacrifice even their life for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Pursuit

Jesus says “follow me.” Being a disciple or servant of Jesus involves a pursuit. It involves actually following someone. In this short statement there is a focus and a forsaking.

The focus in the following is “me” … not “me” as in “you” … but “me” as in Jesus. To be a disciple of Christ means to follow Christ. The focus is on Christ. The life of the disciple is marked by a Christ-centered life. Not a girlfriend-centered life, or a school-centered life, or a sports-centered life, or ____-centered life. To be a disciple and follow Jesus means to have a Christ-centered life.

The forsaking in the following. To be a disciple of Christ means to forsake other interests and activities. You cannot following Jesus and be following something else at the same time. What did I say a few weeks ago? You cannot serve 2 masters!

The Paradox

Finally there is a paradox in this short 2 verse portion of scripture.

Matthew 10:39 ESV

Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

What appears to be a gain by all standards of the imagination is actually a loss, and what appears to be a loss is actually a gain.

Friends, this is always true when it comes to Jesus. The world will see what you do as a follower of Jesus and see it as a waste of time. The world will see you and your boyfriend or girlfriend choose not to have sex until you’re potentially married and think “thats crazy!” They’ll see you eventually grow old and choose to give your time and money to the Church and think “thats crazy!” They’ll see you choose prayer instead of poison (alcohol, drugs) and think “thats crazy!” They will look at your life and think everything you are doing is doing the opposite from helping but friends, followers of Jesus know better.

When a person commits their life to Christ, the world says you are throwing away your life. But the follower of Christ is gaining life, not losing it.

Over the past year you’ve heard me say this again and again. But every single command of God’s word in the Bible is backed up in the results of disobedience. You will find that not doing the things Jesus says to do and doing the things Jesus says not to do will always result in the opposite result you are longing for. Coping with a breakup with sex will leave you even more broken. Coping with stress with a substance will leave you more stressed out and needing more once the effects wear off. Coping with depression with self harm will leave you in more darkness and numb the pain for a brief second until it comes back stronger than before.

But, if we just do what Jesus says we will find ourselves falling deeper in love with Him. No, all of the problems I just said won’t go away. But you’ll see that this great paradox of the Christian faith is better than anything than the world can ever offer you. To gain your life you must lose it. To lose your life means to give it to Jesus and go where He tells you to go, do what He tells you to do, and say what He tells you to say.

Conclusion

There is a high price tag on being a disciple and servant of Jesus Christ. And you may see this price tag and feel much like Lucy did when she first heard of the great lion named Aslan. “Is Jesus safe?” No, friends, He isn’t. But He is good. And following Him with all of your heart, soul, and mind will lead you to a place of experiencing His goodness in ways you could never imagine.

I can promise you this- no matter the “hard” in your life, going through it with Jesus will always be better than going through it alone. Because if you’re not with Jesus- you’re alone.

Lets pray.