As we continue in our series on dynamic disciples or dynamic discipleship, this month our focus has been on the cost of being a disciple. This morning we are going to consider together what it means to follow the way of the Cross.
What is the way of the cross?
The way of the cross is following Jesus.Walking in His footsteps, following His teaching, trusting Him to be our guide in this sin sick world.
The way of the cross requires faith, commitment and daily devotion to God’s will and purpose for our lives.
Think about your own life for a moment, are you following your own way - your wants, your desires, your preferences, your priorities?
Or are you committed to following the way of the cross, following Jesus, trusting God, moved by the Holy Spirit?
I suppose the question I’m really asking is are we truly committed to being dynamic disciples and all that requires of us?
Listen to the Words of Jesus in Mark 8:34-38
Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, Jesus said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. 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. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? 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.”
To truly follow The Way of the Cross, we need to truly follow Christ. We need to be His disciple.
If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.
It is not lip service, it is not being nice, it is not being religious, it is not turning up for a church service if or when we feel like it.
To follow the way of the cross requires us to be fully committed to God not half-hearted.
Our daily lives are meant to show the presence of God to others. Not a superficial Holiness or a judgmental attitude, none of us are perfect, we are sinners saved by the grace and mercy of God.
When we place our trust in Jesus as our Lord and Saviour we are set free from the burden of our sin because of His sacrifice on the cross.
At the cross Jesus paid the price for our salvation in His blood. We are reconciled to God the Father through the sacrifice of His only Son.
He paid the cost in full. Salvation is the free gift to all who believe in Jesus as their personal Lord and Saviour.
It’s a free gift, but there is a cost for us, we are called to follow God’s way and not our own. To follow the way of the cross means we stop following the selfish ways of the world, we stop clinging onto the stuff that can cause a barrier between us and God, we follow Jesus.
God first, God at the centre of our lives not the edges. As Dynamic disciples our daily lives should show that we follow Jesus, that we love Him more than we love ourselves. None of us are perfect, myself included, we may try to live right, talk right, walk right, and fall short of what God expects from us, but that should not stop us from trying to live the way God wants us to should it?
If we have truly placed our faith in Jesus then we are saved. As Peter declares in Acts 4:12 “There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”
Salvation is only possible through faith in Jesus. Not by being a good person, not through our human effort. It is only by faith in Him as our Lord and Saviour that one day we will spend our eternity with Him. True faith in Jesus, real faith in Jesus not religious activity.
If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.
Are you following the way of the cross?
Have you turned to Jesus?
Do you know the joy of having your sin forgiven?
Is Jesus both your Saviour and your Lord?
I think one of the most frightening parts of the Bible for those who have not made a real commitment to Jesus is found in the book of Matthew.
Jesus says to those who say they know Jesus and yet have never really committed themselves to Him these words in Matthew 7:21-23
“Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’”
Sobering words of Jesus.
Those people who only pretended to follow Jesus, those people who never really accepted Him as Saviour and Lord, those people who chose not to follow the way of the cross, they will not enter Heaven.
If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.
These words are the words of Jesus.
They are true.
They are valid.
They are life changing.
Following the way of the cross requires us to place Jesus at the centre of our lives as our Saviour and our Lord.
Following the way of the cross means living for Jesus not for ourselves.
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.
When we repent from our sin, when we turn to Jesus, when we follow the way of the cross we are meant to be different, to live different, to think different from the ways of the world. The Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:17 reminds us "Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!"
When we repent and turn to Jesus, we are born again.
Again listen to the Apostle Paul in Romans 6:5-11 "Since we have been united with Him in His death, we will also be raised to life as He was. 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. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with Him. 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. When He died, He died once to break the power of sin. But now that He lives, He lives for the glory of God. So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus."
And Romans 6:15-16 "Well then, since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not! Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living."
Following the way of the cross is choosing to obey God in every aspect off our lives. As dynamic disciples, we live for Jesus because Jesus died for us.
Following the way of the cross requires full commitment to God not complacency in how we live our daily lives.
What do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?
Christ died for you. He sacrificed Himself for you. He was fully committed to you. Are you fully committed to Him?
Is Jesus worth more than just 90 minutes of your time in church on a Sunday morning?
Are you following your way or the way of the cross?
As I draw to a close I feel I need to ask some of you:
Is Jesus really your Saviour and your Lord?
Have you truly given your life to Him?
Have you come to Him in repentance and asked Him to forgive you of your sin?
Have you chosen to follow the way of the cross?
Don’t hold onto your sin, don’t hold onto your old life. Don’t let anything hold you back from following Jesus.
Give up your old life so that you can gain eternal life.
Turn to Jesus today, trust Him, follow Him, become His disciple, accept Him as your Saviour and Lord.
To those of us who have already trusted in Jesus, are we fully following the way of the cross?
Does He have first place in your life, in my life?
What do you, what do I, need to change or remove from our lives to ensure our full commitment to Him?
Jesus came to die and serve His Father by being a sacrifice for us, to pay the penalty for our sins, in Him we are forgiven, in Him we have the assurance of eternal life.
Finally, listen to these words from Isaiah 53: "He was despised and rejected—a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses He carried; it was our sorrows that weighed Him down. He was pierced for our rebellion, He was crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on Him the sins of us all."
May I encourage each of us this morning, if we have left God’s path for our lives in any way, to return to Him right now.
May each of us willing follow the way of the cross.
