Unless noted otherwise, all scripture is quoted from the New Living Translation of the Bible.
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Are you a follower?
I’ve pretty much given up on asking people if they are Christians. I mean, I don’t want to give the word up – Christian is a very good word to describe who we are – but when you ask it a lot of people assume too much.
"O sure, I’m a Christian. I was born in America."
"Well, yeah, I’m a Christian – I was baptized and I go to church."
"Of course, I’m a Christian, I went forward at a crusade when I was 15 and accepted Christ. Now, I haven’t done a lot with it but I think I more Christian than anything else."
There’s a lot of confusion out there.
So I’ve gone back to using a lot of the language that Jesus used. And when Jesus challenged the people he didn’t challenge them to become Christians but he challenged them to become his followers.
Mark 8:34 – “Then he called his disciples and the crowds to come over and listen. ‘If any of you wants to be my follower’” this is what you’ve got to do.
Now, not all of us a terribly predisposed to following. I’m not. I like ot be the guy in charge. (Why do you think I’m standing up here?) I enjoy setting the agenda. I enjoy running the meeting. I like calling the shots. I suppose I’m not unlike the disciple Peter in that sense.
Verse 31 is pivotal in Mark’s gospel because that’s where the whole flow of events turns and heads toward the cross. Up to that point Jesus had been doing a lot of miracles and drawing large crowds. People were really excited about what he was doing and where this whole Jesus parade was obviously going.
And the disciples – they were counting themselves as lucky dogs – because they were riding on the coat tales of the emerging kingdom. Somehow they had all been chosen to be cabinet ministers in the coming regime.
But then Mark 8:31 happened! “Then Jesus began to tell them that he, the Son of Man, would suffer many terrible things and be rejected by the leaders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, and three days later he would rise again.”
Suffer... Rejection... Killed...
"Wait a minute Jesus, I’m not going to let that happen to you" was Peter’s attitude. "You stick with me and together we’ll come out on top. Just don’t start talking negatively."
Verse 32 – “As Jesus talked about this openly with his disciples, Peter took him aside (!!!) and told him he shouldn’t say things like that.”
"If we want to keep the momentum rolling you can’t talk about suffering, rejection, and death. People don’t want to hear that kind of thing. We need to be about positive thinking."
And in his approach Peter was being very in-charge – asserting the leadership of the #1 disciple.
But what does Jesus say to Peter?
He says: “Hey zip it! You’re sounding like the devil himself!”
Verse 33 – “Jesus turned and looked at his disciples and then said to Peter very sternly, ’Get away from me, Satan! You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.’"
I can imagine that Peter wanted to crawl under a rock. How embarrassing!
But deep inside he knew that he was right. Jesus needed to follow some practical advice. You know how visionaries are – sometimes so far out there that they need someone to hold their feet to the ground.
So what does Jesus do?
Verse 34 – “Then he called his disciples and the crowds to come over and listen. ‘If any of you wants to be my follower...’"
Here is what you’ve got to do.
You see, this whole Jesus thing is about being a follower. Whatever else it entails – baptism, accepting Christ, being a part of the church – all important – but the bottom line is that Jesus is looking for followers.
If Jesus were standing here identifying his followers would he point you out? Would he say that you’re one of his followers? And I don’t just mean, one of his wanna-be followers. Are you a follower?
This morning I’d like to share the scoop on what it means to actually be one of his followers -- based on his words here in Mark 8:34-38. And Jesus, like most preachers was into three point sermons. He tells the crowds and the disciples three things that they need to do if they are going to be his followers. And these are the very same things that we -- that you -- need to be doing if you are going to be a follower of Jesus.
#1 – OVERRIDE THE DEFAULT DESIRE TO BETTER YOURSELF.
Have you noticed that the natural tendency in your life is to try and turn everything to your own advantage? To try and make everything about you?
Now if you’re smart – you figure out that it’s best to not do this in a very overt fashion. No one will relate to you if you appear to be too full of yourself.
Two-year-olds can stand in the center of the room and expect everyone to be looking at them -- making faces and giggling. But if a 12-year-old acts out that way he gets a lot of negative feedback. So eventually we learn that we’re not suppose to behave as those we are the center of the universe.
Still, though, there is that subtle default desire to assert yourself – to get the best possible advantage – to put yourself in the safest and most secure position in life -- to make it about you. This is why we have savings accounts and insurance policies. We’re trying to cover all the bases to keep things secure and ourselves in the healthiest of all possible positions.
Again, insurance and savings in and of themselves aren’t bad. It’s the thinking that usually accompanies these things – where the focus is on self-improvement as an end in and of itself.
So Jesus says in verse 34: "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself...” (ESV)
Or as the NLT renders it -- "’If any of you wants to be my follower,’ he told them, ‘you must put aside your selfish ambition...’”
Perhaps you’ve heard the story of two young brothers who come downstairs for breakfast on a Saturday morning where their father was cooking pancakes.
He starts to pull them off the griddle when the boys start arguing about who’s going to eat first.
Their father seizes this very teachable moment and says, “Now boys, what would Jesus say if he were here?”
They stopped, looked a little confused, and then the father says, “Jesus would say, “My brother, you have the first pancake. I’ll wait.”
So the older brother looks at the younger brother and says, “Hey John, you be Jesus.”
Jesus is telling the disciples and crowds if you’re serious about following me put yourself on the back burner. Self, self improvement, getting your fair -- can no longer be the driving force in your life.
Now, it’s not like self doesn’t count and that you should start flogging yourself. That’s not the point. Rather that self can no longer be in the driver’s seat if you’re going to follow Jesus.
Are you a follower or a driver?
Secondly, and closely related, PUT TO DEATH YOUR OLD LIFE.
When Abram and Sarai responded to God’s call to leave Ur and go to a new land and to start a new tribe of people – at that point they put to death their old selves. God even gave them new names Abraham and Sarah.
When Patrick decided to leave England to preach the good news in pagan Ireland – he left behind his old life in England. He died to his family. He died to whatever inheritance he had there.
Verse 34 again: "’If any of you wants to be my follower,’" he told them, "’you must put aside your selfish ambition and shoulder your cross...’”
You remember that Jesus eventually carried his own cross to the point where he was executed. He needed help and a man named Simon of Cyrene was pressed into service. But he carried his own cross a good part of the way. You can see the image.
Shouldering your cross meant that you were enroute to your own death.
In old England prisoners on the way to the gallows were loaded on the back of ox drawn carts and they sat on the pine boxes that would shortly serve as their caskets. And they were paraded through town.
The imagery is the same. Following means that you’re riding on your coffin.
March as though you’re already dead.
And this isn’t meant to be morbid. But it’s talking about death to self – death to being a success in the world system. Sometimes that does directly lead to our physical death.
And there is a certain release and joy that comes with giving these things up.
But the fact is that it’s not always a pretty walk when you’re following Jesus – some of the time is spent on the Via Dela Rosa. And if you don’t know that up front you’re going to get discouraged or you’re going to try and assume the leadership position – as Peter was trying to do here in Mark 8.
This is what the disciples didn’t get and it’s what a lot of modern disciples still don’t get. Following Jesus is as much about dying as it is triumphing.
This is why Jesus expounds a bit on this in verses 35-38 – “If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will find true life. [THE PARADOX THAT WE DON’T GET] [36] And how do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul in the process?"
That is, so what if you get everything you could possibly want and you get the perfect life – free of pain – free of conflict – filled with every pleasure you can imagine – but in the process end up losing your soul – the essence of who you are?
"[37] Is anything worth more than your soul? [38] If a person is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, I, the Son of Man, will be ashamed of that person when I return in the glory of my Father with the holy angels."
Are you a follower?
Then finally, if you want to follow Jesus – JUST DO IT.
Verse 34 again: “Then he called his disciples and the crowds to come over and listen. ‘If any of you wants to be my follower,’ he told them, ‘you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and follow me.’”
That’s what I mean by just do it. Jesus says “follow me.” Just step out there and do it.
Following Jesus is an act of the will. It is a decision that we make. Now it’s not something we do on our own – God empowers us to make that decision – but still it is our decision to make.
You can hear all of this Jesus stuff for years and never come to the point of deciding that you are going to be a follower. You can go thru the routine and be sincere in thinking that it is helpful for your life – and it probably is. Religion is helpful. But until you come to the point of deciding that you’re going to follow Jesus – you’re not yet a follower.
And I would challenge you this morning to decide that you are going to become a follower of Jesus. Mark this day as the day when you chose to become a follower. You need to start sometime!
But really, when we say JUST DO IT... We’re not only talking about becoming a follower but about the ongoing decision to be a follower.
It’s a decision that we make everyday. With every breath we decide that we’re going to breathe it for Jesus. We’re going to go where Jesus has gone (what else could it mean to follow?)
We follow him to the cross.
We follow him to the grave.
We follow him in resurrection.
And we will follow him in his triumph.
But we decide on a daily basis to follow.
I get a kick out of all the WWJD stuff out there – bracelets, bumper stickers, t-shirts...
WWJD stands for What Would Jesus Do?
Now of course, it presupposes that you know WDJD? What did Jesus do? He took up a cross in all that that meant.
But really, once you ask WDJD? you realize that WWJD? isn’t really a precise enough question. The real question is -- WWJHMD? What would Jesus have me do?
In any given situation, what would Jesus have me do? And the answer is right here in Mark 8. And that is to follow him by --
Overriding the default desire to better yourself,
Putting to death your old life, and
Just doing it!
Are you a follower? Do you want to be?
Let’s pray --
Gracious Heavenly Father:
We thank you for the gift of your son Jesus and we express our desire to be his followers – in all that this means. We do confess that we have done a less than adequate job in actually following thru with that desire. We make excuses and we put ourselves forward.
Still we want to follow and we seek the power of your HS to make it happen in our lives. Indeed, some of us are deciding for the first time that we want to become serious followers of Jesus. We make that commitment and invite Christ to come and live in our lives – and to take charge – from this point forward. For it is all about you – who you are and what you’ve done.
Receive now the tithes, the offerings, and the gifts that we bring as tangible indicators of our faith in your faithfulness and as substantial signs of our seriousness in following you. Amen.
