Welcome
Grace and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Today is the 2nd Sunday in lent; and the theme of today’s service is about suffering, … about taking up our crosses, … and denying ourselves, … while loosing our lives.
This was a very difficult sermon to write, and … you may ask, “Where is the honour and hope and victory and glory in that one”? Well you maybe surprised! It does have a sort of surprising happy ending. More on that later, so let us begin the service with the peace. We meet in Christ’s name; Let us share his peace.
Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16 Psalm 22:22-30 Romans 4:13-25 Mark 8:31-38
“Please be seated, and join me in a short prayer.” Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord. Amen. (Psalms. 19:14)
Introduction.
Centuries of Christian history have made us very familiar with the suffering of Jesus, … and we accept this, we ener sing about it, but in the deep recesses of our minds, we avoid it, … and turn away from scripture like that which we have just read.
Now I don't know about you, but I find life pretty hard going, … in fact I am struggling, … so please count yourselves all blessed, … all of you except Christine this is, … because you do not have to witness me getting up in the morning. … As normal, after a night of poor sleep, … with these legs I stumble, I hang on to the walls and things trying to get to bathroom, ... and then she has to listen to me moaning about how bad school is going to be today because of this new curriculum; ... and that amongst 10 million other problems I have, … that make me wonder how exactly am I going to survive the day, … in fact, I don’t even think as far as the weekend, it is that bad and it is not funny, that is me every single morning, … so please forgive me for not being enthusiastic when some body tells me that I am not suffering enough for Christ. Are you with me?
Ever since I have become a Christian, I have met such people, who like to look down on us with a piety that they have lives problems all solved, and we are simply beneath them in our feeble attempts; … do you know the type; because when you think about it, … to add extra suffering to what we are going through sounds like the definition stupidity itself.
… Now have you ever noticed that I have never said that we should add extra sufferings to our lives? No, and I never will, ... I have always put it another way; and I have said many times that by following Christ we will suffer automatically, … but we will suffer a different type of suffering, a healing suffering I call it, where there is hope and that we are doing the right thing, … suffering in order to help others.
For example, and in contrast, … when I was young I was no angel, … pure delinquent if you want the truth, … and many times I found myself in trouble as I fumbled about trying to make sense of this world, … and I always failed, ... so for me to suffer was a normal part of life, just an every day hazard, … but I was always upsetting other people who retaliated. In fact the more I tried to establish myself, the more trouble I seamed to get myself into. It was an even decreasing circle.
Fortunately I turned to the Lord for help, and from last weeks sermon, you can see how I went through many years in the wilderness suffering, but suffering in a manner that was changing me, and my whole life, … and my view of the world. And as I said last week, that is the power of God, … he will lead us into dark areas in order to develop us, and prepare us for the life ahead, … whether it is in this world or the next.
A few years ago, I said in a sermon to you, that I got a great revelation on the 23rd Psalm; verse 4, (changing the tense it reads), “Yea, though (they) walk through the valley of the shadow of death, (they) will fear no evil: … for thou art with (them); thy rod and thy staff they comfort (them). The revelation came to me when I ask the question, … what were they doing in the valley of the shadow of death in the first place, that they needed the Lord to guide them? … And the answer really hit me, and that was because the shepherd was leading them to pastures new, … the old pasture were spent, and they needed to move on.
So they were suffering in the valley for the Lord; but the Lord was really leading them to fresher and greener pastures. Do you see the difference in suffering, they were not being punished, and they were in fact being blessed, but blessed through their suffering.
A completely different type of suffering
And as we follow the Lord, we will suffer the healing suffering, but do not have to go looking for it; as to where the Lord guides us, … … we never know till we have been, … and for what reasons, … we never find out till it is over. It is a completely different type of suffering: we are not suffering to get what we want, … we are suffering as part of our journey with the Lord to where he wants us to be. And it is this journey that develops our faith, … it develops our trust in him, … and it lets him do his work through us; .. that is, … if we let him. Do you see a wee bit of hope and encouragement going on here through this healing type of suffering?
Matthew 5:10 says, “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”. 1Peter 3:14 says, “But and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of the terror, neither be troubled”. And do you know, we have been working for the Lord all these years and we do not even know it; … and if you think we are not working for the Lord, then who exactly is? … How effective we have been is another matter, but we have been working for the Lord.
Yes we suffer by following Christ, but the glory and the suffering are intertwined; … and this is the principle that we follow, … and this is where we pick up our Gospel reading for today, … where there is no higher glory than what we are about to read; … so please go through this with me, but with a fresh pair of eyes.
Mark 8 verse 31, "(Jesus) began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, … and that he must be killed, … and after three days rise again. … He spoke plainly about this, … and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke (Jesus). ... 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 things of God, but the things of men.
You know that you are having a bad day when the son of God calls you Satan; … Peter meant well but, he was only looking at suffering through human eyes, … he could not see the divine suffering and the victory attached to it, … suffering that would lead to the glory for God, … for all mankind. Peter saw only saw what his earthly eyes would allow him to see, (just like we all do), … although Peter later understood. … …
“The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe”
Many of you may know of a devoted Christian and children’s author called C.S. Lewis, and his book, “The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe”; … and or may have watched the film called “The Chronicles of Narnia”, … which provides a powerful allegory to the crucifixion of Jesus in a manner that is easier to understand.
In the story, a boy called Edmund had been tricked, and a white Witch, (who represents Satan), had him under her spell by promising him all sorts of gifts and good things, … but by doing so, he became a traitor to his friends and family. … Now the Great Lion Aslan, (who represents Jesus), came to his rescue, but the White Witch intervened and made it clear to Aslan that Edmund now belongs to her, … because it was written on the great stone table at the beginning of time, … that it was her right to put these traitors to death on the great stone table itself.
However, after a private conversation between the witch and Aslan, everyone was astounded when she let Edmund go free. … But this freedom came at a price; it demanded the death of Aslan in return. … That night the Great Lion surrendered himself to the evil witch and her followers, … and he was painfully put to death on the great stone table.
Aslan’s friends cried over his death, but early the next morning when they went to recover his body, they found the great stone table broken, (meaning that those old laws were broken), … and Aslan’s body missing. … Suddenly they turned around to find the great lion Aslan alive. … Weeping for joy they asked him, how this could this be and Aslan replied, “the witch knew deep magic, but there is deeper magic which she did not know; … that her knowledge only went back to the dawn of Time, … but if she could have looked a little further back into the darkness before, … she would have read an incantation which said that when a willing victim, who had committed no treachery, was killed in a traitor’s stead, the Great Stone Table would crack, and Death itself would start working backwards”.
… We have no idea the pain and suffering that Jesus endured to set us free. Do you remember Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, sweating in blood when he prayed to his father in Mark 14:36, “Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; … take away this cup from me: … nevertheless not what I will, but what you will … be done”. … Jesus was the spotless blameless lamb, who was the willing victim, … the scapegoat who died instead of us, … to restore all mankind with his father.
verse 34, “And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples, he said unto them, … Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, … and take up his cross, … and follow me”. … This is a verse regularly quoted, … and regularly quoted out of context, … but from this verse we see three things about following Jesus.
First: Deny ourselves.
The first is this “whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself”. … We certainly do not like being told to deny ourselves, however, it is not always Satan that gets our way; it is we ourselves who get in our way; and we can be our own worst enemy, … particularly as we all want to avoid that suffering and pain. What is really being said here is that sometimes, (not always), that the easy way for us is without glory for others, … but it is others and God we should be thinking of, … and not ourselves.
1Corinthians 6:19 & 20 says, “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, … which you have of God, and you are (therefore) not your own? … For you were bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, … which (belong to) God's”.
Those are harsh words, but our pride wants us to be independent of God so that we can run things our way, … and call our own shots or … do things “my way” as in the song. Clearly this is saying, “when you follow Jesus, you do things his way, … for the benefit of others”.
Second: Carry your cross.
So if the first thing is to deny ourselves, the second thing is to, “take up our cross”. … Now the Romans knew what carrying a cross meant; … it meant that a person carry his own cross was doing so to signify their submission to the power of Rome. … So carrying our cross could be as simple as continually submitting our lives to the Lord; … and if we are carrying our own crosses, then we are not taking ownership for other people’s responsibilities when they try to put their crosses onto us, … and making us feel guilty.
But ... the word “Cross” here is a difficult term to define … as it has so often been quoted and misquoted, used and abused. For example: we often speak of a calamity as a cross that we must bear. But is a calamity is a cross? , … It might be a tragedy, … but is it a cross? We might speak of sorrow or loss, as a cross; but these things are horrible heavy burdens, … but are they a cross?
We might speak of our own shortcomings, or our weaknesses as a cross we must bear, … or even our spouses; … but the Cross of Jesus was His deliberate choice, … he chose to give His life as a ransom, for us. … Do you see how that fits in with denying ourselves, and purposely suffering for the greater good, and not our ourselves. ...
Think about it, ... do you think the Lord would like to send us out on a mission carrying a cross of say: cancer, or debt, or shame or some other potential ruin? No way, ... the cross was of Jesus choosing, meaning Jesus could have fled and taken the easy way out. ... It was not a burden inflicted upon him, a burden he could do little about. I just love it when it all fits together like this because it makes things so clear and simple, and it allows us not to be afraid to go against the world's thinking.
Because suffering for the sake of others comes with its own reward, … a quiet reassuring feeling, knowing that we have done the right thing, … that we have helped someone other than ourselves, … that we have suffered for the Glory of the Lord. … It is a healthy suffering which brings life, ... and he, and we know it. … Yes I know it can be difficult, and yes we do not do it as often as we would like, … and yes sometimes we are afraid to stick our necks out, … but at least we understand the reason for doing so, and that encourages us to look for ways in which to do it again and again.
Third: Follow Jesus.
And finally, the last part of that verse is certainly worth mentioning and it is these simple words, … “and ... follow ... me”. “And” meaning that once we have denied ourselves, … and then being prepared to carry own crosses, (by our own choice), we are then instructed, … or we are deemed fit, to follow him. …
And this too has a its own reward; because verse 35 goes on to tell us that, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; … but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it”.
Did you notice that this verse clearly states that we have a choice. We either save our life by taking the easy way out and losing, or ... we lose our life by choosing to suffer, (the healing suffering remember), and gaining life.
This too is a verse that many people run away from, but put in its proper context, it is a verse of honour, … of power, … and strength and might, … it is a verse which denies ourselves in order to let the almighty God of this universe, do his work through us. Is that not encouraging? … I started of with a sermon on pain and suffering, and now we are talking of victory and glory and hope and honour for the future. We are talking about putting life into a situation, ... I would love to continue, but I think we better stop here while we are ahead, and have a short prayer; let us pray.
Let us Pray Father we thank you Jesus, we thank you that he died for us, to save us, and to show us a new way to live.
Father today’s scripture is not one we like to read as it is full of negativity, and pain and suffering, so father teach us, reveal to us yourself, the true mean of today’s scripture in am manner that is full of honour and glory and power; that we maybe encourage and inspired to work for you, to do your will, and take our minds of ourselves and onto you and others in a way that is healthy and full of victory.
Father we pray also for by Paul Humphrey and his congregation who help me get started with this very difficult sermon.
We ask in Jesus name, Amen
Note to the reader:
If you have been blessed by this sermon, or any of my sermons, I would be greatly honoured to receive an e-mail from you saying so; I like so many others need encouragement.
I often feel that to deliver a sermon one time to my congregation is such a waste; where as many more could be blessed by its message, after all, it is not for my glory but for his. I would therefore like my sermons to bless more people, preferably internationally and not only in a small part, of a small country called Scotland.
Simply let me know where you are in the world … and any other information you may want to share or be prayed for. I would also take it as a compliment for you to use my sermons in order to bless others in his almighty name. I do not even need acknowledged, but he does, and I will receive a blessing directly from him.
Thank you for taking the time to read, and I wish you "all the best" as we say in Scotland … and I pray that your endeavours in the Lord are equally blessed. Yours in Christ, Gordon McCulloch, Scotland.
Compiled By: Gordon McCulloch (Worship Leader),
St Oswalds Episcopal Church,
Maybole. Ayrshire.
Scotland. UK KA19 8KF
E-Mail: me through Sermon Central
