Our Promise as Disciples
It is at the Cross of Christ where we discover the way to our Eternal home.
It is at the Cross where Salvation and Forgiveness of Sin are guaranteed to all who accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour.
Last week we took time to remember the Events of Easter, all that Jesus endured for you and for me.
The unfolding of God’s plan of Salvation for sinners that resulted in the death and resurrection of Jesus.
We remembered how Jesus was subjected to six illegal trials, spat upon, whipped, slapped, and mocked with a crown of thorns pressed into His head.
He even had to carry the wooden cross that He would be crucified on to the place of crucifixion.
The cross was laid on the ground, and Jesus feet and hands were nailed to it.
Then the cross was lifted up and dropped into a hole.
Christ hung there between two thieves from early morning until midday. Then finally, he died.
He paid the penalty for our sin. Past, present and future. Jesus took the punishment that you and I deserve.
He was perfect, the spotless lamb of God, and He died for you and me and all who believe in Him.
Praise God Christ was willing to do that for us!
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This month in our series on Supernatural Streams, we are considering together the Stream of God’s Promises.
And Our Heavenly Father has many wonderful Promises for each of us, His children.
But this morning I want to spin things around a little. I want us to consider our promises to God as His children, as His disciples.
Our promise to Deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Jesus.
In Mark 8:34 Jesus said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me.” (Mark 8:34)
There is more to the cross than the crucifixion of Jesus - there is also the crucifixion of self in our lives as Christians.
Let me put this verse into context for you. It was at Caesarea in Philippi that Jesus spoke these words.
He had begun to to prepare His disciples for the crucifixion He knew would soon take place.
But the disciples really didn’t understand, they could not reconcile the cross with a king.
Jesus told them that they, too, must willing go to the cross. Listen to Mark 8:34 – 38:
Jesus said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. 35 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it. 36 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? 37 Is anything worth more than your soul? 38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when He returns in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”
Mark 8:34 – 38
Powerful words, perhaps painful words, but they are words that demand our full promise of commitment.
All of our sins can be traced to a love for self.
Sins of the flesh, sins of the spirit, sins of omission and sins of commission.
We sin because, by our very nature, we care more about our wants, our needs, our desires, than being obedient to God’s will and commands for our life.
The world we live in proclaims, you have rights,
you should have what you want - when you want it,
it’s all about self-gratification, its about feeding our desires, our ego, our love of self.
We live in a sinful and adulterous world.
Yet Jesus says, don’t be selfish.
You could gain the whole world and destroy your soul in the process.
Nothing is more important than your eternal soul.
Except perhaps where a soul will spend eternity, in Heaven or in Hell.
The Good News is that Jesus has paid the price for our sin, for all who believe in Him there is the free offer of salvation for eternity.
We can be saved, we can be set free, we can be redeemed and we can be assured of a place in Heaven because of what Christ has done.
But when we accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour we can no longer live however we want.
We can no longer behave however we want.
In Galatians 2:20-21 the Apostle Paul said
“My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. 21 I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless.”
When we come to Jesus, when we accept Him as Lord and Saviour, we are making a promise to commit our whole life to Him.
Our whole life, not just a couple of hours on a Sunday when we can be bothered to actually go to Church.
Full commitment, full surrender, to God’s will and purpose for us.
When we come to Christ, we are making a promise that God will be at the Centre of our lives.
Not at the edges, the centre.
When God is truly placed at the Centre of our lives,
that’s when our focus is on serving Christ and not our selfish desires.
As Christians, we are meant to be people who have died to self and sin, we are meant to be people who are willing to live our lives for God.
Consider the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 6:6-14
6 We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. 7 For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin.
8 And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with Him. 9 We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and He will never die again. Death no longer has any power over Him. 10 When He died, He died once to break the power of sin. But now that He lives, He lives for the glory of God. 11 So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.
12 Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires. 13 Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. 14 Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace.
(Romans 6:6-14)
Friends, it’s only when we crucify self that we live in genuine repentance.
The Greek word that Jesus used for repentance (metanoia) means “a change of mind.”
When we change our mind about something, we also change our attitude toward it.
When we change our attitude then we are likely to change our actions.
When we accept Christ as Lord and Saviour,
when we repent, when we “change our minds” about sinful behaviour, that is when we make the promise to God to stop loving only self and start loving God.
That is when we promise to consider the needs of others and not just our wants and desires.
That is when we promise to serve Him and place His will and purposes above our own.
It’s a change of mind and a change of attitude that should be evident in our actions and the way we live each day of our lives.
But, it is not just outward behaviour modification that takes place - there needs to be a deep inward transformation of our heart.
Again we return to the words of Jesus in In Mark 8:34 Jesus said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me.”
Jesus taught that this is a necessity for a Christian. It is an an absolute requirement.
Jesus made it plain there is a cost involved in our promise to follow Him.
Listen to these words of Jesus from Luke 14:
25 A large crowd was following Jesus. He turned around and said to them, 26 “If you want to be my disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple. 27 And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple.
28 “But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it? 29 Otherwise, you might complete only the foundation before running out of money, and then everyone would laugh at you. 30 They would say, ‘There’s the person who started that building and couldn’t afford to finish it!’
33 So you cannot become my disciple without giving up everything you own.
Being a Christian is not the easy option.
True discipleship is demanding, it requires our promise to commit our lives to God’s purposes and plans.
Work, Family, Friends, Hobbies, everything else is supposed to take 2nd place to God in our lives.
We are to place Him first in comparison to everyone and everything that could hinder us from being the people He has saved us to be.
Let me close with this (as we come to our time of communion)
At the Cross of Christ we see God’s love for us.
Just as He has promised to save us we have promised to love Him, to follow Him, to serve Him in love.
To really take up our cross and follow Jesus we need to promise to love Jesus more than anyone or anything and actually keep our promise to Him.
Years ago a man called Isaac Watts wrote a wonderful hymn called “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”
Let me read it to you:
1 When I survey the wondrous cross
on which the Prince of glory died,
my richest gain I count but loss,
and pour contempt on all my pride.
2 Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast
save in the death of Christ, my God!
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them through his blood.
3 See, from his head, his hands, his feet,
sorrow and love flow mingled down.
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
or thorns compose so rich a crown?
4 Were the whole realm of nature mine,
that were a present far too small.
Love so amazing, so divine,
demands my soul, my life, my all.
Love so amazing, so divine,
demands my soul, my life, my all.
This morning let me encourage you to renew your promise to really give God your soul, your life, your all for His honour and His Glory.
