“A Demanding Discipleship”

Mark 8:31-38

March 8, 2009 – ©Rev. Dr. Linnea E. Carnes

Introduction

Until Copernicus came along in 1543, we earthlings enjoyed center stage, writes Max Lucado in It’s Not About Me. Fathers could place an arm around their children, point to the night sky, and proclaim, “The universe revolves around us.” But Copernicus insisted that the sun is the center of the solar system and that the earth revolves around the sun.

However, we have been “demanding our way and stamping our feet since infancy. Aren’t we all born with a default drive set on selfishness? I want a spouse who makes me happy and coworkers who always ask my opinion. I want weather that suits me and traffic that helps me and a government that serves me. It is all about me. Self-promotion. Self-preservation. Selfcenteredness. It’s all about me.

What Copernicus did for the earth, God does for our souls. Tapping humanity on the shoulder, he points to the Son—his Son—and says, “Behold the center of it all.” [Max Lucado, It’s Not About Me (Nashville, TN: Integrity Pub. 2004) 3-4,6-7].

The problem is that we don’t live like Jesus is the center of it all. Peter didn’t either.

Jesus had just told his disciples what was soon going to happen to him. He wasn’t going to rise to political power. He wasn’t going to start a revolution to free the people of Israel from Roman rule. Instead, Jesus would suffer at the hands of Jewish leaders and be put to death. However, he would rise from the dead three days later. [Mk.8:31]. This wasn’t what the disciples expected or wanted to hear.

Peter was so shocked by this news that he told Jesus to stop talking this way. It wasn’t right for the Messiah to say these things. Jesus was wrong.

For any God-fearing Jew, the idea of the Messiah finally arriving and then being put to death didn’t make any sense. The Messiah was supposed to set them free – not die. The disciples must have wondered if Jesus really was the Messiah.

Jesus told Peter to stop trying to do things his way, the human way. God’s way was different. Either Peter had to let God have his way, or he would have to get out of the way.

Then Jesus further complicated things. What he said didn’t make it any easier for the disciples to understand this “Messiah.”

Calling the crowds to join him and the disciples, Jesus said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.” [Mk.8:34-35].

They had all seen condemned people stumbling along the uneven road to Golgotha with the cross beam of the cross on their shoulders. There they were nailed to the cross to suffer great pain and slowly die.

What was Jesus talking about? Did he really mean they too would have to die on a cross? How can losing one’s life actually save it?

Some, hearing Jesus that day, may have decided he had become too radical, and turned away.

People today also turn away at the words of this passage. Who wants to follow someone who says we must carry a cross?

Thomas á Kempis, a 15^th century monk, wrote:

Jesus today has many who love his heavenly kingdom, but few who carry his cross; many who yearn for comfort, few who long for distress. Plenty of people he finds to share his banquet, few to share his fast. Everyone desires to take part in his rejoicing, but few are willing to suffer anything for his sake. There are many that follow Jesus as far as the breaking of bread, few as far as drinking the cup of suffering. [Thomas á Kempis, The Imitation of Christ (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1959) 2.9 (p.76-77)].

No one wants to suffer, even for Jesus. So we follow Jesus as long as the road is easy. If the road gets too bumpy, too steep, or there are too many detours, we check our GPS for a better, quicker, easier route. We want to determine our own way for following Jesus.

Like Peter, we want to follow Jesus according to our plan, not his. We want to be Christians on our terms.

However, Jesus said that whoever wants to be his disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow him.

First, we need to remember that our cross is not our burdens in this life. The cross isn’t about our poverty, our illnesses, our personal disappointments, our losses or hurts.

The cross for Jesus wasn’t merely an instrument of suffering and death. The cross was God’s plan. Jesus came to do the will of the Father, and that included dying on the cross for the sin of the world.

So to take up our cross and follow Jesus is to live in obedience to God’s will. When we follow Jesus we give up our way and live Jesus’ way.

That’s what discipleship is all about. Being a disciple of Jesus Christ demands our whole life – total commitment. Living according to God’s will is a demanding discipleship. However, living Jesus’ way is really the only way for Christians.

Jesus said, “How do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul in the process? Is anything worth more than your soul? If any of you are ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of you when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.” [Mk.8:36-38, NLT].

We either give up control and let God take charge of our lives, or we will lose our lives.

So, how do we live according to God’s will? Our job description as humans can be reduced to one phrase: Reflect God’s glory.” [Max Lucado, It’s Not About Me (Nashville: Integrity Publishers, 2004) 81-82]. That’s our job. We are supposed to reflect Jesus.

The church isn’t about us; it’s the body of Christ. Each of us is just a part of Christ’s body, and he is the head. We do what Jesus wants us to do.

Worship isn’t about us; it’s about giving glory and praise to God. We gather not for what we can get out of it, but what we can give to God through our singing, praying, listening, and preaching.

Everything Jesus did pointed to God the Father. He came to do the Father’s will. He didn’t come to promote his own way, but God’s way. He wanted people to know God.

Romans 12:1-2 says: “Therefore, I urge you brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is true worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

· Being a Christian is not about us, it’s about Jesus.

· Being a Christian is not about what Jesus can do for us, but what we can do for Jesus’ sake.

· Being a Christian is about reflecting God’s glory.

As we live according to God’s will people see Jesus.

As we follow Jesus’ example, people will see Jesus.

· Jesus healed the sick and the lame, fed the hungry, set people free from demons, all because he had compassion on people.

When we follow his example, we reflect the compassion of Jesus.

· Jesus was rich yet became poor for our sake, that we might become rich – rich in what truly matters.

So when we are generous and willing to share what we have with others, we reflect Jesus.

· Jesus died on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins.

When we forgive others as we have been forgiven they see Jesus and are set free from sin.

· Jesus said to his disciples: “Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” [Jn.15:12-13].

It is God’s love in us that makes it possible for us to reflect this love to one another.

Jesus’ life is our example. Philippians 2:5-8 says:

“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross.”

When we reflect Jesus’ compassion, generosity, forgiveness, love and humility, the world looks in amazement and says, “I want what they have.”

A man named Joe was a drunk who was amazingly converted at a mission. Before his conversion he was known as a dirty wino who lived on the streets for whom there was no hope. After his conversion, everything changed. Joe became the most caring person that anyone at the mission had ever known. Joe spent his days and nights hanging out at the mission, doing whatever needed to be done. There was never anything that he was asked to do that he considered to lowly. Whether it was cleaning up the vomit left by some sick alcoholic or scrubbing toilets after careless men left the men’s room filthy, Joe did what was asked with a smile on his face, grateful for the chance to help. He would help men who were too weak to feed themselves, and tuck into bed men who were too out of it to take care of themselves.

One evening, the director of the mission was delivering his evangelistic message to the usual crowd of silent men with drooped heads. Suddenly one man looked up, came down the aisle to the altar, and knelt to pray, crying out for God to help him to change. The man kept shouting, “Oh God! Make me like Joe! Make me like Joe! Make me like Joe!” The director of the mission leaned over and said to the man, “Son, I think it would be better if you prayed, ‘Make me like Jesus.’” The man looked up at the director and asked, “Is he like Joe?” [More Stories For the Heart, “Make Me Like Joe!” by Tony Campolo (Sisters, OR: Multnomah Pub., 1997) 29].

The question is: do we reflect Jesus Christ to the world? Can people see Jesus because of us? Being a disciple of Jesus is all about Jesus.

· We follow Jesus, even though he calls us to a demanding discipleship.

· We follow Jesus for Jesus’ sake, not our own.

· We follow Jesus because when we live for him, God is glorified.

· We follow Jesus so that others can know him and follow too.

Jesus has promised those who follow him will share in the life that is eternal and abundant.

Jesus has promised that those who choose him over the things of this world will inherit the all the riches of kingdom of God.

Praise God for those who have accepted the call to a demanding discipleship and have shown us how to live for Jesus.

Praise God for those who reflect Jesus. Amen.

Return to the Sermons Page

Return to the Immanuel Home Page

To email Pastor Carnes or Immanuel Evangelical Covenant Church office@immanuelcov.org

This sermon is copyright ©2009 by Rev. Dr. Linnea E. Carnes, Immanuel Evangelical Covenant Church, Chicago, Illinois.