Matthew 16.24-26 Mark 8.34-37 Luke 9.23-25
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24 Then Jesus said to His
disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take
up his cross and follow Me. 25 “For
whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for
My sake will find it. 26 “For what will it profit a man
if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in
exchange for his soul?
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34 And He summoned the crowd with
His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must
deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. 35 “For
whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for
My sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36 “For
what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his
soul? 37 “For what will a man give in
exchange for his soul?
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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. 24 “For whoever wishes to save his
life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who
will save it. 25 “For what is a man profited if
he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself?
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The cost of discipleship is vital for all of us to
understand. Peter has just responded to
Christ’s revelation about dying on the cross by disagreeing with Him. Jesus accused Peter of setting his mind on
the interests of man as opposed to the interest of God. Understanding that exchange is important to
understanding these statements that Jesus made.
Jesus wants for His disciples and the surrounding crowd to know that
there is a price to pay for following Him.
God has a mission that He is accomplishing in the world. That mission is to reconcile sinful men to
Himself. The Father is “all in” with
this mission to the point of sending Jesus to the earth as a man and sacrificing
His life on the cross. He expects a
similar commitment from all who are reconciled to Him. When God saves a person, He aligns that
person with Himself and the mission He has determined to accomplish. Jesus confronted Peter with setting his mind
on man’s interests and not God’s. Jesus
now reveals to all what setting our minds on God’s interests looks like.
THE DISCIPLE WILL CARRY HIS CROSS: Jesus has just revealed
that He will be killed in Jerusalem by the leaders of Israel. He didn’t say how He would be killed but it is
clear from today’s passage that He know exactly how He would be killed. Peter and the disciples reacted negatively to
this revelation. Jesus wants to make
sure that the disciples understand that this is what God has sent Him to do and
that this type of sacrificial obedience is what it means to be a follower of
God. Just as Jesus would suffer in order
to reconcile man to God; the disciples of Jesus would suffer in order to
announce this message to the nations.
Jesus would suffer so it only stands to reason that those who follow
Jesus would suffer. The cost of
discipleship is carrying a cross. God
has a function for each of us to perform in the mission. That function will require total dedication
on our part and will involve sacrifice and suffering. We are saved by trusting in the cross of
Christ not by carrying our cross.
However, those who are truly saved will align themselves with God and
take up the cross He assigns to us each day as we joyful follow the path of
suffering that has been forged by Jesus.
THE DISCIPLE WILL LOSE HIS LIFE: Those who value their own
life, agenda, comfort and goals above the mission of God will end up losing
their “precious” lives. Trusting Christ
means giving our lives over to Him.
Those who try to save their own lives will be unsuccessful in their
efforts. The implications of eternal
life are that we must surrender our earthly life. We cannot be saved by our own merit so it is a
futile effort for a man so live for the purpose of saving himself. Self-preservation will always result in the
loss of our eternal lives.
Self-sacrifice is the mark of a person who has trusted Christ and
aligned himself with the mission. The
secret to finding our lives is to surrender our lives to Jesus. Every person on the planet is either
worshiping God or worshiping himself in some form. We cannot worship ourselves and expect to be
saved from our sins. Those who follow
Christ will willingly surrender themselves to the purpose of worshiping God and
living for His glory instead of his own.
THE DISCIPLE WILL SAVE HIS SOUL: The stakes in this decision
are sky high. It is a decision with
eternal consequences. There is no price
that is too high for the purchase of our eternal soul. We can never pay that price. Fortunately, we do not have to pay that price
because Jesus paid it on our behalf. He
gives us eternal life when we place our faith in Him as our only hope for the
salvation that we recognize we so desperately need. In response to that gift of eternal life; we
surrender our earthly life to Him. When
we consider what we get in eternity, there truly is no price that would be too
high for such an amazing gift. Make no
mistake about it, eternity is what is at stake.
Gaining all the riches on this planet would be a worthless endeavor if
it means eternal condemnation. Having
the mind of this world instead of the mind of God is a very dangerous
thing. Jesus came to rescue us from such
a terrible end so that we could be reconciled to God and enjoy living our lives
engaged in His mission.
APPLICATION: Praise and worship the Lord for going to the
cross to pay the price for our sin.
Demonstrate that we have been reconciled to God by dedicating our lives
to His mission on earth. Value eternal
life as far greater than earthly life.
Beware of man’s mind detracting us from God’s mind.
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