Follow #25 -- Mark 8:34-38 -- Following Jesus

I must start today's teaching by reminding you of our place in the gospel of Mark. Mark had begun his book by revealing Jesus' identity: he is the Christ, the Son of God (Mark 1:1). And in the first eight chapters of his gospel, Mark shows us the beauty of Jesus' life. No one in the book had confessed Jesus to be the Christ, the long-awaited Messiah, the descendant of David, who would vanquish Israel's enemies and bring in an everlasting kingdom.

No one until Peter that is (Mark 8:29). This is the major revelation we saw in our last study of Mark. Jesus asked his disciples what the crowds thought of him. Then he asked his disciples what they thought of him. And Peter spoke for the group, confessing Jesus as the Christ.

Immediately, Jesus silenced his disciples. Though they were right that he was the Christ, they had the wrong idea of who the Christ would be and what he would do. If they'd gone around telling everyone they'd found the Christ, the fervor of the region about Jesus would've reached a boiling point. Everyone would've expected Jesus to drive out the Roman Empire and establish his rule.

But Jesus came first to die. He will come again to reign. But his first coming required his death. There is no kingdom without Christ's cross. So the disciples needed to be quiet until they learned the full gospel -- then they could preach with their every breath! Until then, silence.

So after Jesus started teaching his disciples about his coming death and resurrection, our scene today unfolded. He called the crowds together. He gathered them with his disciples. And he began showing them what it looks like to follow him.

Again, the disciples have only recently confided in him that they believe he is the Branch of David, who will usher in an age of righteousness that will cover the earth like the waters cover the sea. Their internal excitement and apprehension must have been off the charts. The Messiah has come! And he has -- for whatever reason -- chosen us to be his followers! What will the rest of life be like!

It is clear in other texts that these men envisioned thrones, supernatural powers, and great wealth. They thought of glory. They thought of greatness. So Jesus needed to start the process of teaching them what life in his kingdom would be like.

So Jesus told them:

34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever would 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 can a man give in return for his soul? 38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."

It is an old yet unexhausted passage. It is central to the Christian life and experience. It was designed to reprogram the disciples two thousand years ago, and it can reorient us today. Sermon upon sermon could be spoken from these words, but let's study the text for what it shows us about following Christ.

1. The Attractiveness of Following Christ

34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."

Why Would Someone Want to Come After Jesus?

If you think about it, no one else could say what Jesus said. It hints at his deity. If a teacher -- or even a prophet -- invited people to follow him in this way, we would call it blasphemy (34). His invitation is one of full-scale devotion, ridding one of self-centeredness, and replacing it with Christ-centeredness. He wants us to lose our lives for him (35). He wants us to preserve our souls by being his disciples (36-37). He wants us to find motivation in his return in the glory of his Father with the holy angels (38). No man can ask for this. Only God can command this level of allegiance.

But the crowd and the disciples would have been interested in following him. This is why he started by saying, "If anyone would come after me" (34). This points us to the attractiveness of following Christ, the attractiveness of his life. Anyone can say something like this, but when Jesus says it, we listen because his life is so beautiful.

He Knows About Life

Of course, at this point in Mark, the crowds and the disciples didn't really understand who they were dealing with, but they knew a bit about the life of Jesus. And what they saw amazed them. G. Campbell Morgan called this attraction "the spell of Jesus."

He was appealing. He is appealing. We look at him and know he knows about life. He knows how to live. Even before the cross, the crowds could look at Jesus and see he knew the secret to life.

And the secret to life is something all of us are after. I mean, we all know how to be biologically alive. It takes no effort. We are living organisms. But we know in our souls we don't really know how to live, how to be alive. We sense something is missing, that we are doing it wrong.

We have luxuries. We have scientific advancements. We have great wealth. We have education. We have entertainment. We have literature. We have gadgets. We have great cities and societies. We've built great nations. We have innovation. But, so often, we don't have the sense we are human. Something is amiss. Like zombies, we pass through life. We don't feel we are living out a great, human destiny.

And, now, here is Jesus! He knows about life. He doesn't follow his passions, but his life has great meaning. He doesn't have many possessions, but he is satisfied like none of us have ever been. He doesn't have power, instead serving and lowering himself for others, but he is highly exalted. Jesus knows how to really live. He knows the secret of life.

Rich, Young, Ruler

When we get to Mark 10, we will observe a young, wealthy ruler who comes to Jesus looking for eternal life. He didn't know what we do. He wasn't asking, "How does salvation come? Is it by faith?" No. He wanted the kind of life Jesus had. He wanted whatever Jesus was living.

He had youth, something many in our society are chasing. People want to look young, feel young, or act young. They fear aging. Often, those who fear aging age the worst. But this man, a young man, was successful, in his prime, while young.

He had power. Luke calls him a ruler (Luke 18:18). People looked to him for leadership of some kind. Still a young man, he had an ability or talent which drove him to the top of his community.

He had wealth. Mark says he had great possessions (Mark 10:22). Luke says he was extremely rich (Luke 18:23).

But he didn't have life. He didn't have what he saw in Jesus. When he looked at Jesus, he did not see a young man. Jesus was in his early thirties, but that wasn't necessarily young in those days. And, on top of that, his ragged life of carpentry in Nazareth and his tireless ministry in Galilee seem to have taken their physical toll. When Jesus told the religious leaders that Abraham had seen his day -- a statement of divinity -- they said, "You are not yet fifty years old, and you have seen Abraham?" (John 8:57). They told a thirty-year-old man he was not yet a fifty-year-old man. I take it to mean Jesus looked a lot older than he was.

When the man looked at Jesus, he did not see power. He saw a servant. He saw someone willing to move to the outskirts of town to avoid conflict with the religious leaders. And, though he didn't know it, he saw the Son of God who lowered himself by becoming flesh for humanity.

And when the man looked at Jesus, he did not see wealth. Jesus was content with no home. He was satisfied with little.

But, for all this, the man was attracted to Jesus. He knew as we know today, that Jesus was truly living. He knows how to live. This is the first thing, the attractiveness of following Christ. Don't forget it.

2. The Cost of Following Christ

34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

More Than Sacrifice

So Jesus is attractive. And he is the Christ. But they needed to know what kind of Messiah he would be because the wrong view would lead to a wrong view of discipleship.

So Jesus told them the cost of following him. They would need to deny themselves and take up their crosses.

This isn't Jesus' way of telling us we must deny our personality, die as a martyr, or even live an ascetic life that is detached from "things." He is not talking about self-denial that leads to personal gain -- dieting, exercise, or personal discipline.

No, when Jesus said a man should deny himself it wasn't his way of saying they should deny the self things the self wants. You know, there's your self over there in the corner. Keep things from your self. The self is not some detached part of you that Jesus tells you to deny. He isn't asking for mere sacrifice.

Instead, Jesus is saying the self should be displaced and renounced. Life was about the self. Now it must be about Christ. This means self leaves the throne of our hearts, and Christ now sits upon it.

These are negative and positive commands. The negative: deny yourself. The positive: take up your cross. The negative: step off the throne. The positive: surrender the throne to Jesus. Whatever he assigns you, whatever cross he asks you to take up, take it up, and follow him.

This, of course, is the life Jesus lived. He had an assignment from God. It included the literal cross. It was a method of torture designed by the Romans, but Jesus was destined to partake of it since the Old Testament Scriptures suggested it would be the way he died (Psalm 22).

Embrace Your Cross

Now, when Jesus said these things, cross-bearing was not an established metaphor. The cross was a terrible and very Roman contraption. It was a means for Rome to humiliate those under their subjugation. They would crucify rebels on the entrance to a town, on the main roads, as a way to tell every passerby who was in charge. Rome is the boss. And a person on their way to be crucified would carry their cross. They were submitted to Rome.

So, when Jesus tells us to take up our cross, it's not his way of telling us to put up with a sickness or a trial or a difficult person. It's not his way of saying we should endure times of difficulty. He's instead telling us to give him total allegiance. Follow him no matter the cost.

Quality vs. Quantity

If all this talk of self-denial and taking up your cross sounds like a tall order, you are right. But Jesus knew the task of spreading the gospel through the whole world would be difficult, and he also knew the secret to real living, so he did not hold back. He told people exactly what it would take.

Jesus, you see, is interested in quality over quantity. He knows his message of discipleship will not appeal to the general population. The crowds would not receive it. But it is the secret to real living, so Jesus makes it clear: deny yourself and take up your cross.

In Luke, Jesus spoke of a man who built a tower and a king who went to war (Luke 14:25-33). The man building a tower first sits down and counts the cost. The king going to war first sits down and calculates if he has a large enough army. Jesus is no different from the tower-builder and the general-king. He also counts the cost of building and warring. And what he needs to get the church built and the war won are disciples, people who bear their cross in allegiance to him (Luke 14:27, 33).

Giving Up to Quickly

But this is where the cost of discipleship is too much to too many. It sounds impossible. It sounds like a losing proposition. So, rather than follow Jesus, we make our compromises and continue to settle for less than real living. We turn Christianity into something cheap or easy or weak, and thereby dilute it to the point it's lost its potency.

But potent Christianity is real living. So Jesus gives us promises about life following after him.

3. The Promises of Following Christ

4 Fors

There are four "fors" in these promises. For whoever...For what...For what...and for whoever. It's language that helps us see a connection to the call to discipleship. If we deny ourselves and carry out the assignments Christ has given to us, then this is what we can expect to happen.

Promise 1: You'll Find Your Life

35 "For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it."

This is a surprising element of Jesus' call. When you lose your life for Jesus, you actually save it. You find your life when you lose it -- a total paradox.

Life cannot be found by grasping for it, fighting for the self, trying to get yours. So, though people trade in spouses for a newer version, bite and devour to greedily amass more for themselves, and spend hours doting on themselves, life cannot be found that way. The second you try to find your life and put yourself on the throne, you lose your life. It slips through your fingers.

But the believers in Acts formed a new community and paved a new way of Jesus-living. They communed with one another. They made relationships with other believers a major priority. They gave and sacrificed for one another. They shared Jesus with their cities. They stayed committed to lives of righteousness. They obeyed Jesus' call for their individual lives. And they found life.

Promise 2: You'll Keep Your Soul

36 "For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? 37 For what can a man give in return for his soul? "

Too often, we forget we are comprised of more than our bodies. Our bodies are very much who we are, and what we do with them helps shape our inner person. But we are more than the outward person. We have souls.

And there is no gain, according to Jesus, in gaining the whole world, yet losing our souls. To lose your soul is equivalent to wasting your life, looking back, and realizing you spent it all on the wrong things. Even gaining the whole world is not worth the forfeiture of your soul.

But people neglect and devalue their souls all the time, tossing them aside for the pursuit of passions, possessions, or power. And you can get those things, but your soul is gone. You are no longer you, but an amalgam of other people's priorities and desires. You are lost. Your soul is gone.

But the person who obeys Jesus and makes life about pursuing his will for their lives finds the flourishing of their soul. Their soul flies!

Promise 3: You'll Enter Glory

38 "For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."

Finally, we come to the last promise. Jesus states it in the negative. There are those who cannot abide by the disciple's life, those who are ashamed of Jesus and especially ashamed of his words. When Jesus returns in glory, he will be ashamed of them. They will not be part of his future glory.

But it is all too easy to be ashamed of Jesus. There are obviously things about his life that are palatable to anyone -- his love and grace and mercy and healing -- but the fact he died on the cross for our sin is repulsive to so many. And Jesus spoke words of judgment and righteousness which many in our generation hate. But, the disciple who has denied the self and taken up their cross, Love's Jesus' life and words.

We build our lives upon the life of Christ and the word of Christ.

And, one day, we will discover just how worth it was to make him our priority.