Rejoicing in Crucifixion
*John 12:24-25 24 "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit”
*Today is Easter, the day that is celebrated by egg painting, egg hunting, and bunnies. According to tradition, last Friday was the day Christ was crucified, and this morning He was raised from the dead. So today I am going to talk about crucifixion and death, but not His: yours.
I. Luke 9:23 And He was saying to them all, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.”
A. What does he mean by this? Since we don’t really own a cross to carry around, what is this symbolizing?
1. The death of your desires
2. Doing God’s will
II. The death of your desires
A. The first thing a Christian needs to do here is to understand the moral difference between his fleshly desires and the priorities of God.
1. Your fleshly desires are focused on you, your comfort, and what will make you happy for the moment.
a. An example of fleshly desires is that of possessions. Luke 12:15, “…a man’s life consiseth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.”
11. In today’s society the love of possessions has captured
the hearts of millions. People are selling their souls to get material wealth.
22. We should give freely to assist the less fortunate.
Matt. 6:19-21, “ Let us lay up treasure in heaven, not on earth.”
33. Luke 18:18-25 18 A ruler questioned Him, saying, "Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?". 20 "You know the commandments, `DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, DO NOT MURDER, DO NOT STEAL, DO NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS, HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER.’ " 21 And he said, "All these things I have kept from my youth." 22 When Jesus heard this, He said to him, "One thing you still lack; sell all that you possess and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." 23 But when he had heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.
44. Instead of working our whole lives to pay off things that we have purchased for the luxury of this world or store up for that rainy day that we are not supposed to believe will happen, we should “Labour…for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life…” John 6:27
55. What is that “meat which endureth”?
aa. Your salvation, the salvation of others, the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
b. Other examples of fleshly desire are those mentioned by Paul in Galations: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like
11. An example of this is when Peter gets his own revenge, John 18:10 “Simon Peter then, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s slave, and cut off his right ear;”
22. Haggia 1:9 “Because of My house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house
A.. We are the temple now, and we are busy in our own house, not his temple. We are doing our own thing, and not on upkeep of his temple: Praying, reading the word, etc
c. You have to come to the point where you realize that your desires and your flesh are not good. They are bad by their very nature.
11. Romans 7:18 For I know that " in me ( that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not."
22. John 12:25 25 "He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.
d. You have to understand that not everyone who goes to church, gets saved, and does miracles will make it to heaven—but only those who sacrifice it all to do God’s will daily: AKA taking up the cross daily to follow Him.
11. James 1:2 “Count it all Joy…” How can we count it all joy when we lose our jobs because of our belief, when our spouse leaves us because of what we believe, when our children and family hate us, when we lose everything because of our belief?
22. How can we rejoice when we have to choose between our family and God? Luke 14:26 "If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.
aa. Luke 10:20 but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.
bb. Romans 5:2 and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
cc. Romans 5:3 And not only so, but we also rejoice in our tribulations: knowing that tribulation worketh stedfastness
dd. Matt 5:12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven:
ee. Phillipians 2:17 Yea, and if I am offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all:
ff. Colossions 1:24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake,
gg. HOW CAN WE REJOICE THROUGH ALL THIS?
22. What did Christ go through for us? He rejoiced because he knew the end result: the hope of the world! John 3:16 He was crucified so that we could have eternal life. He rejoiced in that knowledge, that even though it hurt now, the rewards later were more important.
33. Long term reward vs Short term reward.
aa. Hebrews 12:11 "No discipline for the present is pleasant…”
111. Short-term happiness is easy get. Do whatever is easiest and feels the best. Short-term thinking says “cheat on taxes and pay less or don’t cheat and pay more.” Easy choice.
222. Look at the same thing using long-term thinking. Cheat on taxes and go to hell or don’t and go to heaven. Easy choice again, just a different one.
333. Obviously, if we keep out long-term thinking in the forefront of our decisions, we will do better.
bb. Galatians 2:20: "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
cc. Your flesh wants to commit the sin because it feels good, it makes you happy right now, but if we are “crucified with Christ,” then we should not give place to those fleshly desires. Instead we should remember that our flesh is on the cross, and being sacrificed to get the greater reward!
dd. This is a decision and crucifixion that takes place many times a day. The flesh is always ready to live again! Be aware! We drive those nails in our flesh many times each day!
III. In Galatians 5:16-24 Paul tells us: “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires."
A. Now your friends will not understand this. They will not understand you not participating in these activities like they are. First they will think that you are saying you are better than them, then they will just think you are weird, but in the end, they will abandon you, because you make them feel guilty.
1. You will be offered a chance to join them. Mark 15:30 “...save Yourself, and come down from the cross!"
a. If you save yourself, you lose your soul. Stay on the cross and keep God first.
b. Matt 10:28 Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
11. Getting off the cross would save the body. This
is not what we should fear. We should fear being off the cross, which would kill our soul.
22. Getting off the cross isn’t worth it; things of this world are not worth losing your eternal
salvation.
c. Luke 10:3-4, "Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves. Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes: and salute no man by the way."
11. What kind of encouragement was that to men
who had never been involved in any type of
ministry before?
22. It was as though Jesus was saying, “You are going to go out and be chased like wolves desiring to devour you and kill you. You are going to face all-out spiritual warfare. You are going to go hungry at times. You will have to flee for your very lives at other times. You will never be rich by this world’s standards. In fact, I want you to leave your money at home and don’t take anything along to protect yourself with like a rod or a staff. You will have to give up being close to your family and friends most of the time. Don’t bring any extra clothes or shoes because I require you to live totally by faith. And one last thing, don’t dilly-dally around. Don’t stop to talk to friends or make new friends, just keep moving. Now - Welcome to Ministry! How many of you are really called to do this job? We shall soon see.”
d. How can we do this? Keep a couple a scriptures in mind
11. Matthew 17:20, "And Jesus said unto them, … for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you."
22. Matt 6:33 But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
“We can all do a lot better than we are doing.”
