THE BOOK OF MARK SERIES
MARK 8:34-38 “Cost of Discipleship”
OPENING STATEMENTS
It appears that the Lord really wants to say something to us about the subject of discipleship.
• In January, I was introduced to Hal Perkins Book, “Discipled by Jesus”, in which I am reading and encouraging you to purchase and read. That book is transforming my entire Christian walk and life. If you want the book order forms are in today’s bulletin and we will be taking orders through Next Sunday.
• I decided last fall to teach the Series “Journey into Following Jesus- A Study of the Twelve Disciples.” I have ordered 20 copies I want every home to have one on Wednesday nights. They are being offered free, if you want to donate suggested donation is $6. This last Wednesday night we learned that Jesus uses:
o Ordinary people to do extraordinary things.
o He often uses young people and how we that are older can learn from the young.
o He often uses us even though at times we are disappointing.
• Then I decided to do a series this year that will give us a good overlook of scripture, which has taken us to this passage on this particular Sunday which deals with “The Cost of Discipleship” recorded for us in Mark 8:34-38.
TRANSITION STATEMENT: Honestly folks, I couldn’t have planned that any better had I tried.
BACKGROUND OF THE TEXT:
Jesus is at Caesarea Philippi, and He is talking to His disciples. They had been around town, “They would have liked the Beach Boy Songs, “I Get Around.” The Disciples would have added a whole new dimension to that song. That was my ADD kicking in. When you can get the Beach Boys out of scripture you really have ADD.
So Jesus may have been sitting around a camp fire or maybe having lunch. He asked His disciples, “Who is people around town saying that I am?”
Well they had all kinds of answers:
• Some say you are John the Baptist
• Some think you are Elijah
• Jeremiah
• Some believe you are one of the old prophets that have risen from the dead.
But Jesus said, “Well, tell Me, who do you think that I am?”
Peter immediately answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus said, “Simon you are blessed, flesh and blood did not reveal that to you but my Father which is in Heaven.”
Mark doesn’t mention the dialogue that went on with between Jesus and Peter, but Mark does tell that Jesus began to speak of His:
• Suffering
• Rejection
• Death
• Resurrection
Peter takes Jesus aside and rebukes Him.
Wow!
Peter has fallen within a few minutes from the level of knowledge to a level of stupidity, “You don’t rebuke Jesus.”
Jesus said something classic to Peter, “Get behind Me Satan! For you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.” Mark 8:33
Jesus let me tell you what Discipleship is all about and that bring us to our text this morning.
READ TEXT - Mark 8:34-38 (NKJV)
34 When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, "Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.
35 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it.
36 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
37 Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
38 For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels."
Powerful passage, Billy Graham said, “Salvation is free, but discipleship costs us everything.
What does these Words of Jesus say to us this morning?
FIRST- I think we are forced to deal with two powerful questions in this passage.
The first question that we must deal with in this passage is this, Who is Jesus?” In fact Jesus asks the Disciples, who do you say that I am?
One preacher said that is LIFE’S ULTIMATE QUESTION. Who is Jesus to you?
I think it would be interesting if we were not pre-programmed so much in our society how people might really respond to that question.
Is He your closest friend?
Is He your Savior?
Is He someone that you just depend upon just when you are in trouble?
See, the disciples didn’t have it all together at this point. They really thought Jesus was going to come and overrule the Roman Government and set the Jews free and they thought they would be given special privileges in His new kingdom. In fact that believed that so much they argued about it even when Jesus was talking about His death.
It is no wonder Jesus looked at them and said, “Who am I to you?”
TRANSITION STATEMENT: Once we have asked our self the question, “Who is Jesus to us? We must ask the question, “What are we going to do about it?”
How is it going to affect our life?
How is it going to affect our day to day decisions?
TRANSITION STATEMENT: Jesus is saying to His listeners that day, IF I AM WHO I AM SUPPOSED TO BE TO YOU, and then you are going to need to become my disciples.
Jesus quickly gave them a lesson about Discipleship.
1) - Discipleship is not for an exclusive club or group people. Jesus said anyone can be my disciple.
Notice the text: “Whoever desires to come after me?”
Anyone, everyone can be Jesus disciple. All you have to do is desire to.
John 6:37, “Whoever comes to me I will in no wise cast out.”
If you want to follow Jesus this morning you can, anyone who truly desires to become a disciple of Jesus Christ can do so.
Jesus said if you want to be my disciple there are three things you will have to do.
A. You will have to deny yourself.
Honestly I am not good at self-denial. I have trouble denying myself a chocolate chip cookie. The hardest person in the world to deny is oneself.
There is not much said about self-denial in the church today.
We live in the age of self-gratification and instant answers. I am not even for sure we know what self-denial in our day really looks like. I found this in one of my files on self-denial.
“True self-denial is renouncing yourself and the yielding your whole life to the will of Christ. It is submitting yourself to Christ and acknowledging His reign over every aspect of one's life. It is always living not to please ourselves, not to advance our own personal interests, but to please our Lord and do His work. It is denying us of anything that is sinful in His sight. It is joyfully making any sacrifice that our dedication to Him requires. It is giving up of pleasure or comfort for the good of others. The essential thing is that self gives way altogether to Christ as the focus of one's life.” The Vine August 10, 2013
That is a pretty big order. I think it could be summed up, “Lord it is not what I want but what you want.”
B. Take up your cross
Jesus said not only will I have to deny myself I will have to take up my cross, Jesus does not say here, that I will take up His cross but I will take up my cross.
I think all of us have crosses to bear in life. All of us have a story.
Luke 14:27, Jesus said, “Whoever does not bear his cross, and come after Me cannot be My disciple.”
Charles Stanley said we don’t talk much about cross bearing; it is the fine print in the Christian life.
Cross bearing is not a onetime decision but something we must choose on a daily basis.
My cross in life may be different than your cross. My story is no doubt different than your story.
Life is not perfect; we all have things that we have to go through, so Jesus said, if you want to be my disciple you will need to deny yourself and pick up your cross.
Let me name a few things this morning that you may not have even thought may be your cross this morning:
• A chronic health issue, physical or emotional
• Giving up fame, prestige and popularity
• Giving up material wealth, financial security and living a lifestyle that you are not used to.
• The loss of a dream
o Infertility
o Could be the opposite an unexpected child along the way
o A past divorce
o Unfaithfulness
o Loss of a friendship
Bottom line the cross represents death:
• Death to self
• Death to the easy way
• Death to the world’s way
• Death to our desires.
Cross carrying demands we focus on Jesus Christ.
No one’s cross is so bad, no one’s story is so terrible you can’t pick up your cross and follow Jesus with.
C. Follow Jesus
Whoever will make up their mind to be Christ Disciple can do so by deny ourselves what we want, picking up our cross and following Him.
TRANSITION STATEMENT: Jesus said anyone can do that.
2) – A true disciple of Christ often gains through their losses.
Jesus goes on to say if I desire to save my life I might lose it but if I will lose my life for His sake and the gospel’s sake I will save it.
What does all that mean?
I think it means this, I might want to do one thing with my life and God might want to do something else.
If I decide to do what I want I will lose the real happiness in life, but if I decide to do what He wants I will know what real happiness is all about.
You might want to be a doctor, but Jesus said I want you to be a missionary.
You might want to be an engineer but God said I want you to be a doctor.
I believe God has a divine plan for every one of our lives and if we can find that plan we find what real happiness is all about.
CONCLUSION
To the disciple of Christ what is really important is how we come out in the end.
In other words we must make our decisions with eternity in mind.
Jesus said, “For what does it profit, a man to gain the whole world and lose His own soul.” Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” Mark 8:36-37.
If we are ashamed of Him now He will ashamed of us then.
The flip side to that statement is positive, if I am not ashamed of Him, He will not be ashamed of me.
ALTAR CALL
There are those who have never ever made the first step to follow Jesus.
Those that maybe you didn’t realize what you go through that is so difficult is your cross to bear and in order to bear it you need to follow Jesus.
Maybe you are in the valley of making life decisions and it is no accident that you have heard this message this morning and you just need to come and ask God which road to take.
