After speaking about His own future sufferings, Christ now informs the disciples of their upcoming suffering, Luke 9:23 / Matthew 16:12 / Mark 8:31. Jesus plainly explained what was required to become His disciple.
Over the year I’ve seen many Christians fall away for a variety of reasons. Many churches in their eagerness to ‘make disciples’ have baptised people, without first sitting down with someone to explain what is involved in becoming a Christian, and then the church wonders how people don’t stay faithful for very long!
I believe before anyone becomes a Christians there should be some element of teaching about what they are getting themselves into, Luke 9:23-26 / Mark 8:34-38 / Matthew 16:24-27 / Luke 9:57-62. Jesus said that you must deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Him, Luke 9:23 / Matthew 16:24 / Mark 8:34. These requirements are demanding, a person doesn’t naturally deny himself, rather, he usually does what he wants.
Death to self is painful, but that is exactly the meaning of taking up one’s cross. The cross was an instrument of death, to take it up would be to die to oneself and one’s own desires in order to serve Christ.
1. Give up.
First, Jesus tells us that we must deny ourselves, Luke 9:23 / Mark 8:34 / Matthew 16:24. I’ve spoken to many people over the years, and many have been honest enough to say, ‘they would become a Christian but there are certain things they simply cannot give up’.
Now I understand that denying ourselves goes against everything the world says. We see something we like, and we go ahead and buy it. We do sinful things we enjoy, and we keep doing those sinful things we enjoy. A person doesn’t naturally want to deny themselves anything. That’s why going on a diet is so difficult for some. That’s why giving up alcohol and drugs is so hard to do.
When it comes to giving things up, we shouldn’t think Jesus is just speaking about denying ourselves things like coffee and cakes. And we shouldn’t think He is speaking about locking ourselves away in some kind of monastery for twenty years. The word deny, literally means to deny utterly and so, Jesus is speaking about a total surrender of self. We often think we know what is best for us, we often think which direction our lives need to go in, Proverbs 14:12.
But we really need to allow Jesus to drive our lives in the direction He wants us to go. That’s what denying ourselves means, it means we let go of our lives and trust that God knows best, Isaiah 55:8. Trust that God knows which direction our lives are to go.
When you speak to some people and mention the words, ‘give up’, they often think that this means that they can’t enjoy life anymore. Yes, self-denial isn’t easy, but it doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy life. In fact, the opposite is true, Jesus not only came to give us life, but He came so that we can live it to the full, John 10:10. In other words, He wants us to enjoy all the experiences of life, He wants us to get everything good out of life.
Giving up certain things doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy life anymore, nor does it mean we must follow a bunch of manmade rules and regulations. It means we’re continually trying to live our lives for Christ, instead of living our lives for ourselves. Denying ourselves isn’t a one-time act, denying ourselves is a continual action. It’s a total continual surrender of my will for His will.
2. Take Up.
The second requirement to be a disciple of Jesus is taking up our cross daily, Luke 9:23 / Mark 8:34 / Matthew 16:24. Just as we are to continue to deny ourselves throughout our Christian lives, we must also continually take up our cross.
In the religious world today, the cross has become a piece of jewellery that people wear around their necks. It’s become a lucky charm which people hold in their hands when times get tough. If we were around in the days of Jesus, you would know exactly what taking up your cross meant.
You would have witnessed a condemned criminal being forced to carry the very heavy wooden cross through the streets of Jerusalem as they made their way to the place where they would be crucified. Before entering Jerusalem, if you were a visitor, you would have seen criminals who had been crucified hanging on crosses on both sides of the road.
Carrying our cross daily means, we trust in God regardless of what’s happening in our lives daily. Anyone who ever says, ‘Become a Christian and your life will be nothing but one blessing after another’ has told you a lie, 2 Timothy 3:12. Anyone who ever says, ‘Become a Christian and your life will be free from trials and burdens’ has told you a lie. The Lord doesn’t promise if we follow Him our lives will be free from difficulties. He promises us when times get tough, He will take us by our hand and walk through those dark times with us, Psalm 23:4.
Jesus didn’t come to die on the cross so that He could bring an end to human suffering. We only have to look around in the world we’re living in to understand that’s not the case. He came as a man and filled that pain and suffering with His eternal presence. In the darkest moments of our life, or even the everyday struggles and temptations we face, Jesus is with us.
Just as Christ was crucified and gave Himself up for us, we too must crucify ourselves and give ourselves up to Him, Galatians 2:20. Just as He willingly took up His cross for us, we must willingly take up our cross for Him. The cross symbolises pain, suffering and death and Jesus says if we want to become His disciples, then we too must be willing to die to self and go through pain and suffering for His sake.
3. Keep Up.
The third requirement to be a disciple of Jesus is to follow Him, Luke 9:23 / Mark 8:34 / Matthew 16:24. When it comes to denying ourselves, taking up our cross daily and following Jesus, the first person that came to mind was Simon from Cyrene.
When Simon was forced to carry Jesus’ cross, he had to keep up with Jesus, he more or less followed in the steps of Jesus to Golgotha, Matthew 27:32. I can imagine him thinking to himself, ‘I’m glad I’m not walking in His shoes’. But as Christians, we should be very glad that we’re walking in His shoes.
Imagine if were Simon, Andrew James, or John. Imagine you’re going about your daily business of fishing, when all of a sudden from nowhere, this man named Jesus calls you to follow Him, Matthew 4:18-22. I’m sure you, just like these disciples had no idea how much those two words changed their lives forever. Jesus asked them to leave their boats, their livelihood, their friends and family and their very lives.
Everything they had ever known, everything they were used to was about to be left behind because they decided to follow Jesus. Think about it! They left the safety and comfort of their own homes for danger, uncertainty, and persecution. That’s what following Jesus means, it means to continually follow Him wherever He goes, even if that means to death.
Keeping up with Jesus means we live as He lived, we think as He thinks, we love as He loves, and we treat others as He treated others, 1 John 2:6. It means we become fishers of men, we get out of our comfort zones to reach lost souls with the Gospel of Jesus. Jesus isn’t demanding much from His followers, He’s demanding all from His followers.
Let me try and illustrate why it is so important to deny ourselves, pick up our cross and follow Jesus. When you look around you, you may see many other Christians carrying their crosses. This is you as a Christian and your life is going really well.
Suddenly, life throws some challenges at you, and you ask God to lighten your load. And so, God hears your request and removes some of your burdens. Once again, life is great, and you are happily living a Christian life with less weight to carry. You notice that other Christians appear to be struggling to carry their crosses, but they just carry on regardless. But once again, your life becomes burdensome and once again you ask God to remove some of those burdens to make your cross smaller.
And once again, God hears your request and removes some of your burdens. Life is great again, and the cross you are carrying is much lighter and easier to carry. While others are struggling to carry their crosses, yours is much easier to carry. Then when your life is almost over, you come across a problem. You notice that others don’t have the same problem because they are using their crosses to get to the other side.
You try to do the same thing, but your cross is simply too short, it can’t read the other side. While the others have long gone, you are left on your own, hopeless and helpless. The point is, if want to make it to heaven, we must deny ourselves as Christ did, take up our cross as Christ did and follow the example of Jesus.
Remember when Jesus was in the garden? He starts praying to the Father and His sweat becomes like drops of blood. Jesus knew what was coming up, He knew He was going to be arrested, put on trial, and then be crucified. He knew He was going to be one of those who were hung on the side of the road.
Jesus knows that it is the Father’s will that He dies on the cross, but He wilfully accepts this because of His perfect submission to God’s will and His love for you and me, Matthew 26:39. He knows that what He is about to go through will be painful, He knows how much He will suffer, but He also knows He must go through all of this if He wants to return to the His Father in heaven.
Becoming a Christian isn’t an easy decision, Acts 14:22, but it will certainly be the best and most important decision you ever made in your life. If you’re not a Christian today, you might be wondering, is it all worth it? Well instead of focusing on the things you need to give up, maybe you should think more about the things you gain.
Paul says whatever we might have to suffer here on earth, even as we deny ourselves, that those things are not worth even comparing to the eternal glory that awaits us, Romans 8:18. In Jesus, though we deny ourselves, we have all that we could ever hope for, Romans 8:32. Let me encourage you to ‘Give Up, Take Up And Keep Up’.
If you’re not a Christian today then you need to ask yourself, how much value do you place on your soul? There is no profit in gaining the entire world, only to lose one’s soul in the transaction, Luke 9:24-25 / Mark 8:35-36 / Matthew 16:25-26 / Luke 12:20-21. It’s worth everything to submit to God’s stringent requirements for discipleship.
Jesus highlighted the requirements for being a disciple because it’s so easy to imagine that you are a follower of Jesus when, in fact, you aren’t. Discipleship isn’t mere church membership or moral living, it’s total devotion to Jesus Christ. It’s to die to self and live 100% for the Lord. Am I really Jesus’ disciple? Romans 6:16-17.
The confession that Jesus demands isn’t a simple statement with our mouths that Jesus is the Christ and Son of God. It’s a confession that we make with our whole life that is totally committed to Him, Galatians 2:20. Everyone who would seek to be a disciple of Jesus must commit himself to follow Jesus above all things of this world, Matthew 6:24 / Matthew 10:32-33 / Romans 1:16. Becoming a follower of Christ means you will receive persecution of some kind, 2 Timothy 3:12 / 1 Peter 2:21 / 1 Peter 4:16.
Jesus says, that if we are ashamed of him here, he will be ashamed of us there, Luke 9:26 / Mark 8:38. Jesus also said that He, the Son of Man is going to come, in His Father’s glory, with His angels and reward people according to what they have done, Mark 8:38 / Matthew 16:27 / Romans 2:6 / Romans 14:12 / 2 Corinthians 5:10 / Ephesians 6:8. This is obviously speaking about the final judgment.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘He will come in glory the glory of his Father the majesty with which God is accustomed to appearing, and which befits God. He will be attended by angels. He will judge all people. The word ‘reward’ means recompense. He will deal with them according to their character. The righteous he will reward in heaven with glory and happiness. The wicked he will send to hell, as a reward or recompense for their evil works. This fact, that he will come to judgment, he gives as a reason why we should be willing to deny ourselves and follow him. Even though it should be now attended with contempt and suffering, then he will reward his followers for all their shame and sorrow, and receive them to his kingdom. He adds Mark 8:38, that if we are ashamed of him here, he will be ashamed of us there. That is, if we reject and disown him here, he will reject and disown us there.’
Some of Jesus’ immediate disciples would be alive when the kingdom reign of Jesus would be manifested from heaven, Luke 9:27 / Mark 9:1 / Matthew 16:28 / Acts 7:54-56. After His resurrection, Jesus would ascend to the throne of David in heaven, Daniel 2:44 / Daniel 7:13-14 / Luke 1:31-33. He would sit down at the right hand of the Father and rule over all things, Ephesians 1:20-22 / Philippians 2:8-11 / 1 Peter 3:22.
It was a spiritual kingdom in the sense that men responded on earth in their hearts to the fact that He was Lord and Christ, Acts 2:36-37. The manifestation of Jesus’ reign in heaven was made known by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, Luke 24:49 / Acts 2:1-4 / Acts 1:8 / Acts 2:1-4. The presence of the kingdom’s reign in heaven would be manifested on earth by the obedience of men and women who submitted to His reign.