The Paradoxical Sayings of Jesus
Lose Your Life to Save It
Mark 8:31-39
We continue in our summer series on the paradoxical sayings of Jesus. Jesus said a number of things which violate common sense, and seem to be impossible with regard to all the realities we face in this world, and would not have been believed had it not been for who Jesus turned out to be.
The two we've looked at so far are these: Jesus said, Give and it shall be given to you. And to be first, we must choose to be last.
And if those don't see to be self-contradictory, or difficult to apply, we now come to perhaps the absolutely most challenging of all of his paradoxical statements. Listen carefully to this, because this will challenge your most basic instincts, including your survival instinct. For Jesus said, "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it."
Now, one of my reactions to a statement like that is who would say that sort of thing? Really, who would ever even imagine that could be true? And then, perhaps more importantly, who could say that sort of thing, and say so with such authority that it would both be believed and remembered around the world 2000 years later. The only person I can imagine who would and could say such a thing would be somebody who knows something more than we do, and who more than that, is sovereign over the issue of eternal life and death. In other words, whoever said it must have been God in the flesh, the Savior of mankind, the man who is sovereign over immortality, eternal life and even eternal death.
The statement also shares a characteristic true of all of Jesus' paradoxical statements: It could only be true if God Himself is behind it.
The statement actually appears 3 times, all of the appearances are in the synoptic Gospels, or the Gospels with the same perspective, Matthew, Mark and Luke. Specifically, it's found in Matthew 16:25, Mark 8:35 and Luke 9:24. In each of the Gospels it appears in the context of the same story. Jesus and his disciples are in the far northeastern part of Israel, just below Mount Hermon, in Caesarea Phillippi and Jesus has just quizzed the disciples about who men say that He is, and then He asked them whom they say that He is. And of course, Peter provides Him with the great confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God—probably largely speaking for the whole group of the disciples with regard to the startling conclusion they had come to after being with Jesus for some time—that He was indeed the great and long-awaited Messiah and King of the Jews.
It marks a critical juncture in Christ's ministry. One of his major goals has been accomplished—He has finally and fully persuaded Peter and most of the disciples of one of the two greatest teachings of Christianity—that Jesus of Nazareth is indeed the Messiah, God in the Flesh and thus our Savior. Upon hearing and commending Peter for His confession of this truth which is vital for our salvation, Jesus immediately embarks on persuading the disciples of the other great truth with regard to Himself—that the Messiah had come to die for our sins and raised again on the third day. And essentially what Jesus is ultimately going to say in the course of the challenging discussion that follows is this: To be a true follower of Jesus—you need to lose your life for Christ's sake to gain it for eternity. Lose your life for Christ's sake to gain it for eternity.
We'll start reading in verse 31: "And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. And He was stating the matter plainly."
Now this is a completely new and revolting concept to Jesus' disciples, and to Jews in general. The general view of the Jews and the disciples is that the Messiah would be a political and military deliverer who would rescue the Jews from foreign domination. Jesus had made veiled references to His death and resurrection previously, but now, as Mark comments on it, he says that Jesus was stating the matter plainly. In other words, he was not making the point once, but he was stating it repeatedly and more than that, he was stating it in the clearest, most concrete and unmistakable terms so that the disciples would have absolutely no question about what was about to happen. Obviously, the idea that Jesus would be raised from the dead totally escapes the disciple’s notice—clearly due to their unbelief regarding such a possibility. They, and Peter, especially were focused on what they saw as very, very bad news—that the religious and political establishment in Israel, the elders or Sanhedrin and the chief priests and all those scholarly scribes who controlled what happened in Israel were going to reject Jesus so forcefully that they would kill him. And that notion was just absolutely unacceptable to them. At the very least, it was completely unacceptable to Peter, whom, as we have seen, was the most outspoken of the disciples, and often spoke for them. Peter was probably feeling pretty good about himself, having just been commended for making the great confession, and hearing that flesh and blood had not revealed this truth to him, but rather Jesus' Father in heaven. And it's often when we're feeling pretty confident about ourselves that we end up in trouble—pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. So Peter, having reached the heights of spiritual understanding, now falls to the very depths of spiritual deception and presumes upon Himself that He is able to correct, of all people, Jesus, the man He has just declared to be the Son of the living God.
The rest of verse 32: "And Peter took Him (Jesus) aside and began to rebuke Him." Can you imagine rebuking Jesus, of all people?
Verse 33 confirms for us that this was not exactly a good idea: "But turning around and seeing His disciples, He (Jesus) rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind Me, Satan, for you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but man's."
Whew!
Now what's going on here? Why such a sharp rebuke for a man who simply seems to be concerned for Jesus' welfare—who wants to keep Jesus from being killed. And why does Jesus bring Satan into the whole discussion, as though Peter's thinking had been deeply influenced, even controlled by the deceptions of the great deceiver?
Obviously, this is a very big subject. What's going on here is that Peter doesn't understand the essential mission of the Messiah, and God's priorities with regard to life and death and eternity, or even how eternal life was going to come about as a result of Christ's coming. In fact, He is so in the dark about these issues that what He effectively was doing at this point was presenting himself as an obstacle, a stumbling block, who would prevent Jesus from doing the very thing that would save sinners from their sin, and earn eternal life for them. And that was also the very thing that Satan wanted to do—to get Jesus to circumvent His mission—to accept the Kingdom from him without the necessity of suffering and going to the cross. We see this in the temptation of Jesus in Luke 4 when Satan offered Jesus all the Kingdoms of the World if he would only worship Satan rather than God, His Father. So Peter, being completely deceived, and taking into account a this life-only human perspective, suddenly found Himself being rebuked for standing in the way of Christ's mission to save mankind and doing so at the bidding of the Great Deceiver himself.
Now what is most revealing here is Jesus' statement about why Peter was doing what He was doing in verse 33: "For you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but man's."
Now how many of us here, being in Peter's shoes, might have done exactly the same thing. The Son of God seems to be on a suicide mission, and I think most of us might identify with Peter.
But that's precisely the problem, according to Jesus. The root of Peter's rebuke of Jesus is this: that he and Satan have man's interests at heart rather than God's.
And that's the problem most of the time between us and God—We have set our mind,our affections, on the priorities of this life, rather than God's eternal priorities.
And so that's our first point this morning: To be a follower of Jesus, don't set your mind on this life's priorities, but on God's eternal priorities.
You see, if we're actingin accord with our natural instincts, what we're going to be all about in this life is our welfare with a this-life-only perspective. That's never God's priority. What God is about is the welfare of others, and His glory, and He always has an eternal perspective. What He's going to be concerned about is not our comfort in this life, but saving others for the next life. That's why Jesus would be going to the cross in this life—giving his life in this life—to save those who would believe in them for His eternal kingdom.
You see, this is what is really behind Jesus' statement in Matthew 6:33 with regard to our priorities as believers: Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all other things will be added to you. Our first point this morning is this: To be a true follower of Jesus, don’t set your mind on this-life’s priorities, but God’s eternal priorities. Don’t set your mind on this life’s priorities, but on God’s eternal priorities. Peter had set his mind on this life’s priorities by trying to save Jesus for this life and for himself and for the interests of this life. Jesus had set his mind on God’s priorities—dying on the cross to save you and I and Peter and everyone else from our sin so we could liver forever in the coming Kingdom of God. It’s the difference between a heart set on this life only and it’s priorities and a heart set on seeking first the interestrs of the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, even if it meant giving a person’s life to that end.
Now let me give you an example of someone who had set his mind on God’s interests: The Apostle Paul. Do you remember when he writes to the church at Phillippi and he's in prison in Rome. It's a thank you letter for the Philippian’s provisions for him while he's in prison, and perhaps surprisingly to us, it is a letter of great joy. Here Paul has been the object of an assassination attempt back in Israel, had been falsely accused by the Jews, arrested, tried by Roman authorities, sent to Rome, shipwrecked and still years later He's still in prison. But he's joyful? Why? Because he was not so concerned about his circumstances in this life, or his comfort, or his pleasure. What He was all about was telling the good news about Jesus Christ and seeing more and more people come to faith in Christ. And so He gives the reason why He is so excited, so full of joy, after being in prison for years. He says in Philippians 1: For all these things have fallen out rather for the furtherance of the Gospel so that the whole praetorian, or Roman guard, in Rome knows the reason why he is actually in prison—that it’s for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In other words, what Paul was all about was the propagation of the Good News of Jesus Christ. He did not care one bit about his personal circumstances or comfort; his only priority and desire was that his life be used as a means of bringing glory to God and the Good News of Jesus Christ to as many people as possibile. And guess what, that’s exactly what his imprisonment and all these trials had accomplished. So he rejoiced. And He said, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
Now I had a little taste of what this kind of priority was like in my own life this past week. As many of you know, I’m immunocompromised, so I received infusions of antibodies on a monthly basis. This past week as I was at my doctor’s office for infusion there were two new nurses charged with the task of connecting me to the Intravenous fluid through which the infusion would come. And there’s always a challenge connected with this—sticking a needle into one of my blood vessels. After many experiences of chemotherapy and other infusions, my blood vessels have become tough and scarred and often roll out of the way when a nurse tries to stick them. So this always causes the nurses who are working on me a great deal of anxiety as they repeatedly dig around in my hand and arm with needles trying to stab one of my elusive veins. So the first nurse fails on her first try and turns it over to a second nurse, and it’s her first day on her new job—even though she had 30-years of experience in the profession in the ICU. She’s doing her best to make a good impression, but her first two sticks and digs also fail. She’s embarrassed and anxious that she’s causing me to experience a great deal of pain—I’m trying to assure her this is the norm, and it’s okay, I’m used to it. And she tells me that in her former job two attempts was the limit and then you had to turn the job over to another nurse. But there’s no one immediately available for that here, and after all she doesn’t want to admit to a failure. So here my arm and wrist are decorated with multiple pieces of tape and gauze so that she’s having trouble working around them to make another attempt and finally, on her third try, she strikes gold—well, that is blood. And you know what her comment was. “God is good!” In other words, she had been praying. Well, guess what that did. It opened the door for Jim Wallace and a Gospel presentation. “Oh, you believe in God? So do I? Where do you go to church?” And we were off to the races, and as it ended up I would share the Gospel not only with her but theother younger nurse, who had never heard or understood it before, and I would not be surprised if one or both of them came to saving faith! In other words, the personal pain involved in three failed attempts to find a suitable blood vessel resulted in an opening for the Gospel and perhaps the salvation of one or two people. Was the pain in this life worth it! You bet. Because what I’m about is not so much the comforts and pleasures and successes of this life as the propagation of the Gospel and the Kingdom of God.
Is that what you’re about? Jesus was dead serious, so serious in his rebuke of Peter here that when Peter rebuked him, Mark reveals that he wheeled completely around so that the other disciples could hear him and delivered this stinging rebuke so that they could all hear it, and understand. And if you think about this, this is the normal and natural response that any of us might have toward a loved one who might suffer and die. What Jesus is saying is that this normal and natural response is not only not a godly response, but in this case a Satan-inspired response, if God’s interests and the propagation of the Gospel are not the priority.
And it’s at this very point of the most intense conflict and rebuke of Peter that Jesus makes the most challenging statements He ever makes. First, he says, Be ready to die to self to live for Jesus. Be raedy to die to self, to live for Jesus.
Now it’s worthy noticing here that Jesus makes sure everyone around, not just his disciples, hear what He’s about to say. Verse 34: Now He summons not just the disciples, but the crowd. “And he summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.”
Now, of course, Jesus had not yet gone to the cross. The Jews, however, under Roman domination, were no doubt familiar with this brutal form of Roman execution, because obviously it had been used on them by the Romans. And they knew that only condemned men, who had formerly been in rebellion to the Empire, took up their crosses. And so Jesus spells out the qualifications for discipleship: “If anyone wishes to deny Himself, he must deny Himself, and take up his cross and follow me.” Wow. He says anyone who follows Him must take upon Himself a death sentence, and specifically, as he uses the phrase, deny Himself, a death sentence to self-centered interests. Jesus Himself has just announced He is on His way to a cross in Jerusalem where He is going to suffer and die. And He now makes it crystal clear that anyone who is really wanting to follow Him must be willing to do the same thing—deny himself, deny self-centeredness, deny havinghis way, even his own life, and even, if necessary to take on the identity of a condemned man to live for Christ and His Kingdom, God and His interests first if He would truly follow Jesus.
The fact that Jesus says this to the crowd and not just His disciples tells us something else. Jesus was not interested in winning a popularity context. Quantity of followers was not as important to Him as the quality of the devotion of His followers. He wants folks who follow Him to be absolutely sold out, lock, stock and barrel, or heart, soul, and mind to His will and His interests first. He’s not interested in half-hearted devotion. After all, what has he said is the greatest command of the Law: To love God with allyour heart, mind, soul and strength. And in Revelation 3 when Jesus confronts the church at Laodicea about the luke-warm attitude toward Him, He tells them would that you were cold or hot, but since you are luke-warm, I will spew you out of my mought. Half-hearted devotion to God and Christ, and God and Christ’s interests is, therefore, absolutely disgusting to Jesus Christ. He gave His all for us on the cross, and He insists that the only acceptable form of worship is for us to become living sacrifices in return for His devotion to Him.
So how would you rate your devotion to Christ. Cold, luke-warm, warm, or hot. If it’s anything less than hot, then you need to listen and apply—If you would follow Christ, die to self to live for Jesus.
And things don’t get any more comfortable for any of us as Jesus continues. Finally we come to what I regard as the most paradoxical and challenging of all of Jesus statements in verse 35: “For whoever wishes to save His life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.”
Wow, talk about laying it out for us—here it is. Jesus says you must die to self to live forever. If you would live forever, you must die to self.
Now we talk about saving faith being a free gift. And it sounds so easy. Jesus died for us, salvation is a free gift. But when we believe it, what we believe determines what we do. And what that means is that faith will result in good works. The faith saves, but that faith will result in a repentance, a turning to God from self, a recognition that life is no longer about me, myself and I, or this life only, but it is about Jesus Christ and His Kingdom. And now that’s what I’m about—not this life or myself only, but about Jesus and His eternal priorities. So we must choose to deny ourselves, die to ourselves and live for Christ.
But how literally are we to take this? Sure Jesus may be talking figuratively about denying ourselves and thus dying to ourselves, but is it possible there is also some literal truth to this—that if we were to come to a push comes to shove sort of situation, would it really be necessary to literally give our lives for Jesus to save ourselves, would that be necessary. Well, taken that Jesus was talking about a very literal death for Himself in this context, I think what He’s saying is that yes, you come to the point of a sword, and someone tells you to deny Christ or die, what would your faith in Christ tell you to do—to maintain your testimony, to follow Christ, even if necessary as a condemned man to your death, just as He did so for you.
So, we might ask ourselves how this worked out for Peter, and the other disciples. How did the disciples respond when they faced precisely these kind of literal circumstances—a choice between Christ and life? What did they choose? Well, we know the answer for the faithful 11—all of them but John suffered a martyr’s death to maintain their testimony for Christ—not one of them recanted, not even John when he miraculously survived being boiled in oil, but all of them were willing to give their life for Christ’s sake and the Gospel to save it.
So what is Jesus saying here? You must die to self tolive forever. And you must be willing to die, to literally die for Christ, to live forever.
Just how serious Jesus was about this is reflected in his next two statements—both of which are directed at persuading us to take this necessary step of commitment to follow Christ. To be willing to die for Christ in order to live.
And He asks two very persuasive statements: “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul.”
In other words, what will you have if you have everything anyone could ever hope to have and lost your own soul? You would lose everything, because to lose your own soul is to lose you.
And then conversely, this incredibly well-crafted question: “For what will a man exchange for His soul?”
In other words, is there anything, anything at all in the entire universe, more valuable than your very own soul—your very self. What would you sell your soul for? If you’re selling your soul for anything else but Jesus, you’re going to lose it. And so the only logical choice is to sell your soul, give your life for Jesus, because that’s the only way you’re going to save it.
And then Jesus brings us down to the very circumstance that each and every one of us may face someday, a situation that more Christian in history than ever before are facing at this time in history according to the Voice of the Martyrs—a choice to confess Christ, or deny Him, at the point of a sword.
And this is what Jesus says about such a situation: “For whoever is ashamed of me and My Words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with His holy angels.
In others words Jesus is telling us this: Deny Jesus in this life, and He’ll deny you in the next. Disown Jesus in this life, and He’ll disown you in the next.
So we’re brought back to the only place that Jesus’ statements allow us to go and that’s this: When Jesus said, For whoever wishes to save His life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the Gospel’s will save it, he meant it in absolutely every way it could possibly be meant.
And that only He would have said it—because he was the ultimate example of the love that motivates such a statement and He Himself gave His life for us, and he’s the only man who ever lives who could say it, because he was the only man who ever lived who had power over life and death and our eternal destinies.
And finally, we can also conclude, that because he gave His life for us, He perhaps more than any other person in all of history, is worthy of that kind of commitment.
The question this morning is whether you have made that kind of commitment to Him. If you have truly turned from self to Christ as both your savior and Lord, and concluded that since he died for you, you will be a living sacrifice for Him.
Let’s pray
