March 12, 2006 Mark 8:31-38
31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”
34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37 Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? 38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”
What is the difference between a job and a hobby? That could be answered in a number of ways. A hobby is something that you enjoy, while a job is not necessarily so. You do hobbies because you want to, while a job is more mandatory - to pay the bills. I’ve often heard farmers refer to their job as a hobby - with tongue in cheek. They refer to it as a hobby because it doesn’t always pay the bills - but they enjoy it so much that they wouldn’t want to do anything else.
How do you look at being a Christian? Is it a hobby? Is it something you love to do, but don’t have enough time for? Or do you look at it as a job? Something you have to do, but you don’t really enjoy? Or is it a conglomeration of the two? That all depends on how you look at it. I hope that after today’s sermon you will look at Christianity and realize -
Christianity: It’s More Than a Hobby. It’s a Way of Life
I. The why
People will do seemingly crazy things if they enjoy them. Some people collect Pez dispensers. Some people enjoy bungee jumping from bridges - some enjoy running miles and miles and miles - others enjoy mountain climbing. Imagine if you asked someone what they liked to do and they said, “suffering.” What would you think about someone like that? A bit strange, huh? Who would voluntarily choose to suffer if they didn’t have to? Jesus. He didn’t have to go to the cross. He didn’t have to allow those puny chief priests and Pharisees take him captive and put him on the cross. He was the almighty God. Yet Jesus willingly let them do just that. Today’s text contains the first detailed prediction that Jesus made of His own suffering and death. Notice what it says. He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this.
If Jesus didn’t have to go to the cross, then you might ask, “why does he use the word ‘must’ to describe his suffering?” That could be answered with one word - love. In His love - God hated seeing us be victims of the devil. He hated seeing us covered head to toe with sin - on the way to hell. God didn’t like to see us drowning in our filth of sin. It was the love of Jesus that compelled him to do what he did - there was no way that he could sit idly by while we were helplessly on the way to hell. His love for us compelled him to go to Golgotha - He had no other choice. John 15:13 explains it well: Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. It was because of Jesus’ love - that’s what drove him to voluntarily suffer in our place.
That’s the way Jesus describes the Christian life as well - voluntary suffering and sacrifice. Notice what Jesus says - living a Christian lifestyle isn’t something that can be forced upon you. This isn’t like a gun law or a speeding violation. You can’t force people to stop using God’s name in vain or to pray in school. He says - you must deny YOURSELF. It has to be something you do to yourself - because you want to.
Unfortunately, you see many people who look at Christianity more as a job - doing something they’re forced to do. They’ll sit at the restaurant and complain, “I can’t have meat tonight!” When asked, “why not?”, they answer, “because it’s Lent!” You’ll hear a young man complain to his friends, “I can’t watch any R rated movies!” When asked “why not?”, he’ll explain, “cause my parents won’t let me.” During Lent some of us might complain, “do I have to go to church tonight?” Does God accept such sacrifices? Let me ask you this - How happy does it make you when your children will only vacuum the carpet after you have to yell at them to do so? Does that please you? Neither does it please God when people look at Christianity as a job that is forced on them by other Christians.
But overall, that’s not why we live Christian lives. That’s not why we come to church. That’s not why we give our offerings. We make these sacrifices of time and talents and money because Jesus washed us clean from our sins - even forgave us for the times that we have complained about doing what God asked us to do. We do it because Jesus rose from the dead, and he promises us that because He lives - we also will live forever in heaven - through faith in Him. He has given us a beautiful gift of salvation. 1 John 4:19 says, “we love him, because he first loved us.” We do it because we love God and want to do everything He tells us! Christianity isn’t just a job for us - it’s more like a hobby - we like doing these things for God - even though they are sometimes difficult.
II. The way
When we call Christianity a hobby - we realize that it’s more than that. It’s not just something we do when we have the time, or when we feel like it. It’s something that permeates every thought we think - every move we make - every breath we take - it is our lifestyle. Think about Jesus for instance. His whole purpose from day one - was to do two things - to live a perfect life in our place - and to die an innocent death in our place. Every decision he made - every shop he swept - every miracle he performed - every fight he fought - was made somehow to accomplish that purpose. There were times where his decisions caused him much pain and suffering. There were times when he was tired and wanted to be alone. But when the people came to him hurting and suffering, he put aside HIS wants and took time out to heal them and teach them. As long as he knew that he was doing what he came to do - He did it willingly. It was more than a hobby for him. He wasn’t Savior for one day and just a normal kid the next day. Every minute of every day of his life he was achieving our salvation. It was his way of life.
That’s what Christianity is to us as well. Being a Christian permeates every area of our life - our thoughts, our actions - the way we conduct our business - the way we do our homework - even the way we treat our possessions. You can tell this in the way that Jesus describes what it means to “follow him.” He gets down to the heart as he says you have to deny yourself. Jesus says, whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. You don’t just have to deny meat on Fridays or deny candy for 40 days. You have to deny your very self. You have to be willing to lose your own life.
But what does that mean to “lose your life,” and “deny your self.” Your self and your life are the very core of who you are - the things that give you identity and make you who you are. We tend to sometimes take pride in our selves - we call ourselves “self made men.” We trust in our decisions in life to get us where we need to go. We enjoy our own uniqueness in life and tend to praise what we deem in America as rugged individualism. American Idol, the popular singing competition on television - seeks out the unique people - the individuals.
Yet Jesus says that as Christians we need to be willing to , “do things that will deny your self and take up your cross.” This doesn’t mean that Jesus wants us all to act like robots and not to use our individual talents. Yet often, when we have been given dynamic “selves” - we tend to have a great passion to use those talents - to live life to the full. We become enamored with what we want and we can do and it comes to the point where we get a sort of tunnel vision in our lives. All we tend to think about is the self and my life. Many times we tend to do things only for the “self” - even if it feels right. So Jesus says you must “deny yourself.” I need to stop asking, “what is in it for me?” And instead ask, “what does God want me to do?
When you deny yourself, you naturally have a cross. Sometimes the cross comes from your very self - because you are angry with your place in life - and want to do more for the SELF. You get angry with your kids because they don’t allow you the time to watch television or take a nap. You get angry with your spouse because he or she doesn’t want you to take a promotion. You get angry with your spouse because he doesn’t give you the time you need away from the house. Sometimes the cross comes from those who want you to do what they want - but you refuse them because it’s not what God wants. Your classmates become angry with you and call you stuck up because you won’t go to their party. Your cousin gets angry with you because you still go to church when he visits you over the weekend. Your boss gives you a bad review because he doesn’t want to give you a raise. We don’t like these crosses. They make Christianity feel like a job more than a hobby.
This is where Jesus starts to reason with us a little bit. He treats us like little children, who need a treat to use the potty or a paddle to stay out of the street. As adults, we obviously know that it’s better to potty in the toilet and not in our pants. But a child doesn’t realize that - so he needs a yummy to motivate him to do so. A child doesn’t understand that a car could run him over if he runs in the street. But he does understand that when he takes a step over the curb daddy will come and paddle his rear. It’s unfortunate that Jesus has to go to such simple talk, but we often need it because of our lack of understanding.
First of all, Jesus uses a yummy to help motivate us to live a Christian life. He says, whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. You think of Paul - who lost his reputation among his peers - and was even put to death for proclaiming the gospel - he never lost the faith by putting God’s reputation first. You think of Noah, who was looked at as a madman for building an ark. But knowing that they had a reward - eternal heaven - helped keep them in the faith. Jesus reminds us of this as well. When you lose your life - who you are what life has for you - and only concentrate on the Gospel and what Christ did for you - you will be saved - eternally - because you will continue to have confidence in the fact that Jesus lived and died for you!
Jesus also used a paddle to keep us from such thinking that the Christian life is not worth living: What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? He reasons with us - if you really want to gain the whole world - and sacrifice your whole life to becoming a millionaire - and own the whole world, what good will it do your soul? If you want to consume your life with how popular you are at school, or how many promotions you can get, what good will it do you? You can’t take it with you. Think of Solomon. After he gained great treasures and a great reputation in the world - what happened to it all? He finally realized, “it’s all meaningless, because I can’t take it with me!”
He went on to speak even stronger: If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.” Jesus says, “if you really want to ignore me - and be ashamed of me - you can. You can act like you never knew me in the way you speak and act with your classmates and co-workers and family. You can ignore what I’m telling you - and put your self - your sports, your job, your hobbies first. You may even gain some fame and riches for yourself. But just remember - on Judgment Day - I will be ashamed of you.”
Like little children, Peter and the disciples didn’t like that idea of being rejected by the world and suffering. They needed to be rebuked harshly. They thought that Jesus should be an earthly king - have servants under him - establish a great and glorious kingdom on earth. They thought it was crazy for Jesus to willingly go to a cross and suffer, so they tried to talk Jesus out of doing what he came for. Jesus would have none of it. When Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” When you think that life is about avoiding the crosses - about living for glory for the here and now - you are thinking like Satan. When you try to convince yourself and other people that they are the master of their destiny - that they need to look after #1 - that being THEMSELVES - you are being a miniature Satan. You’re only thinking like a man - “what’s in it for me.”
After Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, the disciples finally understood what the Christian life is all about. It’s not about living glorious and magnificent lives on earth. It’s not about what we want for ourselves. It’s about suffering for the kingdom. The reward doesn’t come until heaven and the resurrection. When Peter and the disciples realized this - they almost all became martyrs - rejoicing in their suffering for Christ. It became easier for them to make sacrifices and take chances - knowing that their futures were secure in Christ. When Christ’s crucifixion and the Gospel becomes the core of who we are - the more we are influenced by that - and want to become like that in EVERYTHING we do - in the way we work at our jobs, the way we spend our time at home, with our spouses - life isn’t about us. It’s about Christ and what He calls us to do.
Do you like where you’re at right now - with your job - with your life? It’s very rare to find people nowadays who enjoy their jobs or where they are in life. Usually, when they find something they like to do - they either can’t find a job in it - or they can’t make a living in it. They’re always looking forward to something in the future because they just don’t enjoy the people they work with or what they’re hired to do. If you can find something you love to do and get paid for it - you’ve got it made. Do you like where you’re at right now?
More importantly - do you like where you’re at right now - as a Christian? I think someone once said of Christianity, “the pay is terrible, but the benefits are great!” The world pays us with insults and persecution and no thanks as we try to sacrifice ourselves to help them. While we try to do our duty of Christianity sometimes we too get worn out by doing “the right thing” - and wish we could do our own thing. We don’t really like it sometimes, because like Asaph said in Psalm 73, there is no temporal “pay” for our works. But then when we start wanting to go away from the cross, the Holy Spirit catches us and says, “stop thinking like Satan and men. Think about eternity.” Yet for the most part, we enjoy doing this Christian thing - no matter what job we have or where we are in life. We like it because we realize that we don’t need to get paid for it. Through faith in Christ - by his sacrifice - we get the free reward of eternal life! What could be greater? Knowing this makes us realize that Christianity is more than a hobby. It’s a way of life! Amen.
