Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Luke 9:18-26 | Date: January 5, 2025 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Open your Bibles with me, if you will, to Luke chapter nine, Gospel of Luke chapter nine. As I mentioned last week, we’ll not be in our regular expositions of the Psalms today. Instead, we’ll look at a theme for the New Year’s. And what I want to do this morning then is unpack our Lord’s demand of discipleship when he tells us to take up our cross and follow him.

I’ll begin reading with verse 18. Luke chapter 9, beginning with verse 18.

“Now it happened that as he was praying alone, the disciples were with him. And he asked them, who do the crowds say that I am? And they answered, John the Baptist. But others say, Elijah, and others, that one of the prophets of old has risen. And he said to them, but who do you say that I am? Peter answered, the Christ of God. He strictly charged and commanded them to tell this to no one, saying, the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised. And he said to them all, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it. Whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. I tell you truly there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.”

Let’s bow together. Our Father, we pray that you will open our minds and our hearts to this demanding portion of your word. We pray that you would open our hearts to receive our Lord’s commands gladly. We pray that you’ll enable us to serve him with joy and with fruitfulness throughout this year. We pray in his name, amen.

There are really three outstanding observations about Peter, observations that stand out from this passage. The first two are enormously important and, in a sense, capture the entire Bible. But they are mentioned just briefly and on the way toward a third observation that really is what Jesus is focusing on. So that’s what we’ll do here.

But I’ll mention the two. One is, of course, Peter’s confession of faith that Jesus is the Christ. That’s verses 18 and 19. “Who do these people say that I am? Who do you say that I am?” And Peter answers, “You are the Christ of God. You are the one that God has long promised. You’re the messianic king that we have heard about from our fathers, that your scriptures have told us about for all of these generations. The prophets have told us, the Psalms tell us of it. This is the hope of our people from the beginning. Now you have come and we recognize and own you as that one who has been promised.” And of course that confession of faith that Peter makes is a confession that every Christian since has gladly made. So the first observation that stands out is the very important confession of faith that Peter makes regarding the Lord Jesus.

Secondly, a second observation that stands out here is that Peter’s understanding of Jesus’ role as Messiah was lacking in a very important way. Verses 21 and 22: “He strictly charged and commanded them to tell this to no one, saying that the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised.” Our point here is simply to say that Peter’s understanding of Jesus’ role as a Messiah was lacking in a very important way.

Now that’s only briefly alluded to or hinted at here in Luke’s account. It is more explicit in Matthew’s account where we find that Peter actually pulls Jesus aside and rebukes him for what he has said. This is a disconnect. When the Messiah comes, he’s not going to be killed. That doesn’t make any sense. And so he rebukes Jesus and tries to straighten him out and correct his thinking. But Jesus is clarifying and refining Peter’s understanding of the Messiah and of the kingdom of God in a very important way. It is to say, yes, he’s the king. He’ll bring in the kingdom of God, yes. But to secure a people for that kingdom, he must address the problem of human sin.

Of course, looking back now from our standpoint, and what Peter would soon learn, all of this makes so much sense. This is the wonderful message of the gospel, that the cross was the path to the kingdom, that Jesus went to the cross, and it wasn’t an upset, it was his reason for coming, that there at the cross he would secure a people for God, for himself. Establish the kingdom of God. The cross would be the means of establishing that kingdom. Peter hadn’t learned that yet. He would soon.

But all of that is, as I say, on the way to another point, another observation here. And this is what Jesus himself focuses on. In fact, this is where the narrative brings us. And that is, if Jesus is the Christ, and if the Christ must suffer many things and be killed, all of that carries solemn and weighty implications for Jesus’ disciples as well. And that’s verses 23 and 24. He said to them all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. Whoever would save his life will lose it. Whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”

The Demand Of Discipleship

Now this was another surprise for Peter. If it was a disconnect to think Messiah is going to suffer and be killed, well this is another disconnect because now at this point, Peter’s expectations are acknowledging that Jesus is that long hoped for Messiah, that he’s the king of Israel who’s finally come. Recognizing that, you’re thinking, oh boy, this is gonna be good. The glory days are here.

And we have a hint of that kind of thinking in this passage itself. Back to verse 10 and following, we have Jesus feeding the 5,000. There was a moment of excitement. You can imagine. Peter comes to the conclusion now. Here he’s fed a multitude with a boy’s lunch. More than 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish. This king is gonna be good. He’s gonna be unstoppable. Give him a spear, a sword, a couple of shields, he’ll outfit an army. Nobody can stop him. And evidently, there’s some of this thinking going on.

We’ll see it a little bit later. In verses 42 and following, we have this man with a demon-possessed son. And Jesus rebukes the demon. The son is, the boy is healed. The disciples and everyone, it tells us, in those verses, everyone was marveling. And it’s on the heels of that that we come to verses 46 and following where we have this argument erupting among the disciples as who’s going to be greatest in the kingdom. It’s here, he’s here, it’s here, this is gonna be good. Who’s gonna be the greatest? Who’s gonna have the right hand? Who’s gonna have the left hand? Who’s gonna be the one to delegate the authority out? Whatever it is, however it washes out, this is gonna be glorious.

And then Jesus comes and says, no, you’ll take up a cross. And you have to hear that in the atmosphere of the first century in the Roman world, with vivid scenes of these ugly, grotesque crucifixions in front of you. And Jesus says, no, there’ll be a kingdom, yes, and I’m the king. And glory days will come. But not yet. Your life from this day forward will be taking up a cross. The path to glory for every citizen of the kingdom will be the path that the king himself takes. First a cross and then the crown.

And we have to notice here, verses 23 and 24, this demand is not an exception. This is universal. Verse 23, “he said to them all.” That is, verses 11 and following, the crowds who are following Jesus. He said to them all. Mark’s account here actually is a little bit more explicit. Mark tells us, calling the crowds to him, with his disciples, he said to them—and then we have what we have here in Luke—he said to them all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”

This is the demand of discipleship. It admits no exceptions. Anyone who will belong to Jesus, he says, must take up his cross. “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.” Now, once we’ve said that, that requires some definition. So let’s take a moment and say, what does Jesus mean by this? It’s pretty clear he’s speaking metaphorically. He’s not saying that everyone who follows me has to be crucified. He’s speaking metaphorically.

Defining Cross-Bearing

So what does he mean by this cross-bearing idea? And in fact, in these verses, he defines it for us. Let’s work our way through it with some detail.

First of all, cross-bearing is something that’s painful. It’s something difficult. This is meaningless apart from that. It’s more than that, and we’ll see that in a minute. But first of all, it’s painful.

Number two, cross-bearing is something intentional. This is very important. Cross-bearing is something intentional. It is a deliberate choice. It calls for voluntary enlistment. “Let him,” he says, “deny himself. Take up his cross.” This is intentional. This is not just a resigned acceptance to bad things that happen. This is deliberately taking a course of action that is painful. I’ve always wanted to define cross-bearing as the deliberate choice of a painful alternative. Taking up your cross, denying self, a deliberate choice of a painful alternative, just as Jesus did in taking up his cross. So cross-bearing is painful. Cross-bearing is something intentional.

Number three, cross-bearing is purposeful. That is, there’s a reason, a motive, a goal to it all. And that is service to Christ. Repentance from sin, following Christ in that sense? Yes, of course. Must be that. But it’s at least that. It’s more than that. It’s choosing a painful alternative in order to serve the interests of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 23, “let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.” Be imitators of me. Be like me. And verse 24, “whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” This is not just resigned acceptance to things difficult. This is not just choosing a life of asceticism. This is choosing a painful alternative in order to pursue the interests of Christ. So Jesus is not telling us here that we have to deny ourselves merely. What he is telling us is that we must deny ourselves in order to advance his interests. Set aside our interests in order to pursue his.

So cross-bearing is painful, it’s intentional, it’s purposeful, and then number four, the obvious: cross-bearing is mortal. The purpose of a cross is not to inflict pain merely. I was part of it. But ultimately the purpose of the cross is to put to death. Death is the very purpose of it. And that’s verse 24. “Whoever loses his life for my sake shall find it.” So there’s a real sense in that in order to follow Jesus we must die. In what sense must we die? In this sense: we put to death self-interests and subjugate all of them to His. We lose our life for His sake. There’s none of this, “well, I’ll take Jesus for forgiveness, but I’m not interested in following His commands.” Or, “I’ll take Jesus for forgiveness, but I won’t bother following Him. I won’t inconvenience myself to serve Him. I’ll pick and choose among his commands.” None of that. Taking up your cross is mortal. And what Jesus demands, in short, is that we bow before his lordship and subject all of our interests and all of our ambitions to his. That’s the demand.

One more. Cross-bearing is painful. Cross-bearing is something intentional. It’s purposeful. It’s for him. It’s mortal. And then number five, it is perpetual. Verse 23, “let him deny himself and take up his cross daily.” This is not just repentance at the front door and then being done. This is not just serving Jesus one day a week. The defining mark of all of life, every day he says, is a life commitment surrendered over to the service of the Lord Jesus. Every day, every day, every day for life. And so Jesus is saying here in short, if you would belong to me, it’s all or nothing.

Now, we’ve got to try to understand this further then. Don’t misunderstand it. This is not merit theology. This is not how we buy our way in. If we serve him faithfully enough, he’ll have us. This is not merit theology. Salvation is free. Only the work of Christ saves. We find that alluded to in these earlier verses when Jesus speaks of his suffering and he must be killed, put to death, rise from the dead. Jesus does the work that saves. But still, these are the terms. Saving faith entails commitment. Saving faith entails surrender. Without that surrender, without taking up our cross, losing our life for his, without that, Jesus says, I won’t have you.

So you’ve heard me say this many times before, you know, in the primary sense, salvation costs us nothing. That’s the glory of the freeness of the gospel and the freeness of salvation. God doesn’t look to us and say, if you perform well enough, I’ll take you. We go to Him pleading the work of Jesus and say, He has done it all. He’s done the work. And on the ground of what Christ has done, we come and God accepts us. In its primary sense, salvation costs us nothing. But in another sense, salvation costs us everything. And that’s what Jesus is telling us here. Verse 23, we must take up our cross daily. Jesus lays claim to everything about us: our time, our energies, our money, our obedience, our attention, our loyalties, our confidence, our commitments—everything about us. And verse 24, make sure we understand everything is at stake in this. “Whoever would save his life,” that is not give it over to Jesus, “whoever would save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” And then verse 25 makes it explicit. “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?” And so Jesus says, to live for me will cost you your life, but to live for anything else will cost you more.

In the spring of 1957, my dad and mom and my older brother, who was one at the time, moved to the south side of Chicago to where my dad was to plant a new church. And my dad was an amazingly gifted evangelist. Throughout his ministry, so many came to Christ, hundreds of people, more impact for Christ in that respect than most anyone I’ve ever known, certainly more than I’ll ever have. And he had these moments of almost prophetic insight—could tell you stories the rest of the day. It’s fascinating how God had gifted him particularly as an evangelist.

He went to Chicago, on the south side of Chicago, to start this church. There was another church in the area that identified a need in this particular area, south side of Chicago, that needed a church, and they asked dad if he would come, and they pledged to support him. Read that support in quotes—it was barely enough to live on—but they will support him for six months. Six months, then you’re on your own. And dad took them up on it and within six months there was a church there of 200 people. Incredible how it went.

That was 67 years ago there I was born, this past week. I was at the church’s 25th anniversary. Kim and I went there—what was that, 30 years ago or whatever that was? No, more than that, 40 some years ago. We were there and got to meet people who were led to Christ there by dad and his preaching and his witness. Didn’t particularly enjoy meeting all the old ladies who said they remembered changing my diaper in the nursery. There are people there in the church today who were led to Christ by my father. They’re gone now, but their children and grandchildren are there still serving in the church.

And one of them in particular—I don’t mean to drift on all of that, but one where I was going with all of this—there’s one in particular. Dad had led this lady to Christ. She began to attend the church, join the church. And Dad had been to her home several times to talk to her husband and shared the gospel with him. And then at one point they were having some special services of some kind and he went out there and invited the man, his name is Clyde, “come out to the service. I want you to come out and hear me preach.” And so he did. He came out, and Dad said you can see the man was visibly shaken.

And in those days, they gave an altar call. And at the end of the service, gave the altar call, and Clyde stepped forward, came down, and said he needed to be saved. And Dad handed him off to a man who was there. He was the state director of the Association of Churches that Dad was working with at the time. Handed him off to him, and the service concluded. And Dad greeted people at the door. Came back to the front afterwards, and there the two of them were, and he came back to check on them, and the state director says, “well, Clyde here has come, he wants to be saved, and I had him pray, but he said he’s just having difficulty with it.”

And it was one of those moments where Dad had one of these, I don’t know, I won’t call him a prophet, but it was like prophetic insight, and he just kind of brushed the director aside, and he said, “Clyde, you shouldn’t have bothered coming.” He said, “I know what happened.” He says, “you know you need to be saved, and that’s why you came. But between that chair and when you came down front, you started negotiating with God. You started negotiating and saying, well, I don’t have to serve him like my wife does, and I don’t have to commit all my money to him, and I don’t have to give up this habit, and I don’t have to give up that habit.” Dad named some of them. He said, “you shouldn’t have bothered coming. He won’t have you.” God used that to break him and he was saved. His family’s still in the church there today. Dad was a real evangelist, but he understood that you can’t lessen the terms from what Jesus has given. Repentance is required. Surrender is required. And if you’re not willing to give yourself to Jesus, don’t bother coming. He won’t have you.

Examples Of Would-Be Followers

Now, later in the chapter here, Luke gives us some illustrations here from the life of Jesus. If you glance down to chapter 9, verses 57 and following, we have three examples here of would-be followers of Jesus. Verse 57: “as they were going along the road, someone said to him, I will follow you wherever you go. And Jesus said to him, foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head.” So here’s a man who comes with commendable desires. And Jesus says to him, he says, I’ll follow you. And Jesus says to him, wait a minute. Understand something here. I’ve given up everything. The implication, obviously, is so must you. Not too fast. Do you understand the cost?

Verses 59 and 60 then pick up on another illustration. “To another he said, follow me.” So here Jesus is going to him. “To another he said, follow me. But he said, Lord, let me first go bury my father. And Jesus said to him, leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” So here’s a man who’s agreeable. Says he’ll follow Jesus. All he wants is a waiting period. Other things must come first. Now we look at that, particularly in our age of the easy decisionism that we’ve become accustomed to—we look at that and we think, here’s a willing convert. This is great. And if all he wants to do is wait a while, fine. Jesus is not impressed. And he presses the man and he says, there’s an exclusiveness of duty. I claim priority over even your family responsibilities. There’s an immediacy of the work of the kingdom. You must follow me first. And if you’re not willing to do that, then forget it.

And if that seems difficult, try the following verses, verses 61 and 62. “Yet another said, I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home. Jesus said to him, no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” Again, here’s someone with commendable intentions, but again, he asks for a waiting period. And again, Jesus responds: not only is there a priority of commitment, there’s an exclusiveness of duty. You can’t serve me that way. It’s all or nothing. There’s no looking back.

We find this is a common teaching in Jesus. Chapter 14, we find it again, if you’ll look there. Chapter 14, verses 25 and following. Jesus presses the same idea, only more closely. Luke 14 verses 25 and following. “He cannot be my disciple. For whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you desiring to build a tower does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it. Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation, is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to mock him, saying, this man began to build, was not able to finish. Or what king going out to encounter another king in war will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with 10,000 to meet him who comes against him with 20,000, and if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends his delegation and asks for terms of peace. And here’s the conclusion. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has, cannot be my disciples.”

So in verse 25 here, we have multitudes of people clamoring to hear Jesus. And we might think, this is great. This is wonderful. This is revival. Look at all the people coming to hear Jesus. And Jesus is not impressed. It’s more like a spectator sport for them. They’re coming to watch the excitement, to see what happens. And it’s an unconsidered and a superficial attachment to Jesus. And Jesus is not impressed, and so he cautions them: if you will be my disciple, stop now, consider the cost, and decide whether you are willing to pay it. If you’re not willing to give yourself entirely to me, then you can’t have me. Coming to me will cost you your life. Giving your life to anything else will cost you much more. Eternity’s at stake in it.

Verses 26 and 27 here, Jesus describes the cross bearing in terms of earthly relationships. “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, cannot be my disciple.” Jesus here is not talking about sinful things that we must give up. Of course, that’s a given. There must be repentance at the front door and ongoing through the Christian life. He won’t have us apart from obedience. But Jesus is not talking here about specifically sinful things. He’s talking about good things. Your father, your mother, your brother, your sister, family relationships. He says you must hate them.

What does that mean? Isn’t this the preacher of love? Interpreters call this a comparative negative, not an absolute negative. He’s not saying you must absolutely hate your father and mother. But what he’s saying here is that your love and service to me must be of such prior commitment that all other loves will at times seem like hate. The Lord Jesus lays claim over every allegiance, even our own life. Your ambitions, your goals, all of them, he says, must be subject to me. That’s verse 33. You must renounce all that you have.

We’ve all seen this, I think, at one time or another. Christians who have unsaved families—they want to get along. They love their father and their mother and their siblings. They want to get along. Not only will they not, because they’re followers of Christ, not only will they not affirm their worldly ideals, but they’ll even risk the relationship because they love them. They’ll risk the relationship in order to give them the gospel, knowing that it might not be well received, knowing that it might be resented.

Jesus speaks of it in other terms in Matthew chapter 10. He says, don’t think I’ve come to bring peace. I’ve come to bring a sword. I’ve come to set a son against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.

I remember one man came to Christ. He had lived a completely worldly life before. Some involvement in drugs, other things. He was just not a respectable, profitable citizen, necessarily. But his family was fine with that. He came to Christ. And of course, he wants to tell his family about it, and now they think he’s nuts. They criticize him and now he’s sort of on the outs with the rest of his family. His mother in particular was bitter against him for getting on this crazy idea of religion.

One day I was going to the grocery store, walking across the parking lot, I crossed paths with her. And I greeted her, “Hey, Lois, good to see you.” And she started in on me. And this Christianity stuff and it’s—”I decided,” she said, “I decided to figure this out for myself.” Yeah, I bet you did. “I decided to figure it out for myself, and so I started reading through the Bible, and I came to the Sermon on the Mount, and Jesus says, he didn’t come to bring peace, he came to bring a sword. That’s awful.” I didn’t correct her that that’s not the Sermon on the Mount—that’s Matthew 5 to 7, this is Matthew 10. That was incidental.

But I thought, you know, I didn’t want to have a showdown here in the parking lot, but you picked the verse. I said, “Lois, you think Jesus carried a sword?” Well, no. “Is there any evidence that Jesus carried a sword, went around whacking people?” No. “What does it mean then?” I said, “What it means is that if a man chooses to follow Christ, his mother may well hate him for it.” And there it was, being lived out—she picked the verse.

Man or woman comes to Christ—his parents, his wife, his children, they think he’s nuts. And all he’s gotta do to win back their affection and their approval is give up Jesus. And that’s the one thing he can’t do. I know one young lady, older teenager, came to Christ, recognized Christ’s call to be baptized. Christ owns her now, she belongs to Him, and He has commanded that now, to show that loyalty to Him, you undergo this rite of baptism. She came from a background in a mainline denomination where they went through a process of what they think is baptism. She went home and told her parents that she was now going to be baptized. And it was hardly a worse thing she could have told them. They sobbed. They pled with her. And finally it’s, “You’ve rejected us.” No, I haven’t rejected you. Jesus has prior commitment.

I know of young men who determined that they’re going to give themselves to the service of Christ in vocational ministry. They prepare for it. They work toward it. And they notice an area of service that they can fill, where they can serve Christ effectively. They have the gifts. They have the abilities. They think this is the fit. Happens to be overseas. Goes and tells their parents about it. “Why would you do that to us? Why would you take away our grandchildren?” And then it comes. “You must hate us!” Don’t hate them at all. She said Jesus has prior commitment.

Not as severe as that because it’s not family relations, but we’ve all seen this with men and women believers on the job. They know that to be accepted among the crowd there at work, they’ve got to laugh at the same jokes, tell the same stories, accept the same ideals. They won’t do it. Instead, they’ll even try to turn the conversation to give a witness for Christ. And they know that as a result of all of that, they’re gonna bear the brunt of jokes behind their back, and they’re gonna be called Holy Moses, and they’re gonna sit alone in the break room. They’re not gonna be invited to the parties, probably overlooked for promotions. Why would they bring that all on themselves? Because Jesus has prior commitment. He lays claim over everything about us.

On another level, we see this in Christian homes, where he gives himself to her in self-sacrificial love, just as Christ loved the church. Where she gives herself to him in loving commitment to be his helper. Where both of them make sacrifices and adjustments of their otherwise good pursuits in order that they more effectively bring up their children for Christ.

On another level, we see this in the church all the time. Men and women not only give up their Sundays—otherwise crowded schedule just like everyone else—they give up their Sundays for ministry of the word and fellowship. More than that, they give up their precious time to serve individually, officially in some office in the church, corporately, on a personal level, in all kinds of capacities. Some are deacons; they give themselves to spend hours laboring for the rest of the congregation. Some are Sunday school teachers; they give themselves to prepare diligently to present the gospel to the children. Others invite other people to come and entertain them so that they can have ministry with them and fellowship. Others are serving and helping in other kinds of needs, various capacities, and trying to encourage and help others in various kinds of ways. They give up a significant portion of their income every week to advance the cause of Christ.

And one older couple planning a vacation out west—they noticed a need in the congregation. They determined their money would be better used for Christ’s. They canceled their trip. Men and women give themselves to love and serve people who are not always loving in return. Men and women in the church who will endure offenses, not because they like it, but they’ll endure offenses from others because that’s what Christ has done for them. Men and women who will shut off the television, even when they’re tired, so that they can spend their time and their energy in prayer—prayer for their family, prayer for the congregation as a whole, prayer for individuals in the congregation that God will protect and keep from sin—give themselves to study of the word and memorization of scriptures, nourish their souls.

Belonging to Jesus is demanding. He calls us to take up our cross every day and follow him. When we come to Christ, we give up our right for life to revolve around us and our interests and our amusements and our ambitions. From here forward, we say all of life belongs to Jesus. And so Jesus tells us here, chapter 14, verse 25, count the cost. Count the cost. If you’re not willing to surrender everything to me, don’t come at all. If I’m not worth everything to you, then you’re not worthy of me.

It’s probably been a long time since I’ve said this, but you may remember my telling you before that one of the most important, one of the most helpful questions you can keep in mind as you read through the gospel accounts of the life of Jesus is the question: what is the self-estimate of Jesus? Well, that’s a fancy way to put it. What does Jesus think of himself? And of course on the one side there are the liberals—that Jesus never claimed to be Messiah, he never claimed to be God, and all of that. Missing the obvious. But the answer is you question yourself as you read through the gospel accounts of Jesus and listen to what he has to say. And you look at passages like this and you ask yourself, who can talk like this? Who is it that lays claim over my affections and my loyalties above what belongs even to my family? Who does he think he is?

Of course, we know who he is. He’s what Peter said he is. He’s the Christ that God has promised and sent. He’s the King. And recognizing him as such, we gladly take him up on his terms. And we come to him—every one of us has done this, haven’t we? Every one of us, we’ve come to Christ saying, “I gladly accept the terms. You’ve rescued me from my sin. You’ve secured me for yourself. You’ve given me eternal life. Everything I have, everything I am, it’s yours.”

And that’s why in the New Testament, we find the apostles and the early Christians describing themselves in ways that we don’t today. But it would be good to adopt their terminology. In the New Testament, when those believers describe themselves, they describe themselves in terms like disciple, a follower of Jesus, or bond slave. We’ve recognized the lordship of Jesus and we bow before him accordingly.

This is exactly what each one of us has professed in our baptism. Jesus says, all authority has been given to me in heaven and earth. He’s the accomplished Savior, Matthew 28. He’s been through the cross and through the tomb, and he stands as the all-sufficient Savior. All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations. Bring them in subjection to me. And to symbolize that, baptize them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And every one of us in our baptism, we profess—that is our testimony. The old life’s gone. We’ve run up the white flag of surrender. It all belongs to Jesus now. I’m his.

This was the sticking point for the rich young ruler. “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus says, sell everything you have. Follow me. And Jesus was not worth more to him than his possessions. That tripped him up.

Lessons From The Teaching Of Jesus

Well then, there’s the passage and Jesus’ teaching. What lessons can we learn from this? Let me give you three just quickly.

Number one, this ought to teach us something about evangelism. There’s a temptation on our part, particularly in the last couple of generations of what we call easy believism, cheap grace. There’s a temptation on our part to trim off the rough edges and emphasize in evangelism only what makes you happy. Trim off the rough ideas like repentance, demanding to follow Jesus. We tend to ignore all of that and reduce conversion to a formulaic prayer. They’ve recited this prayer, they’ve said these words, bang, they’re in. We forget all about Jesus’ demands.

You witness to someone: “Do I have to give up my…” and they know about Christians, they know about you weird people. “Do I have to give up my immoral relationship? I understand you Christians disapprove of homosexuality. Do I have to do that?” What we tend to do is, “we’ll talk about that later, just pray this prayer. Say these words.” In fact, so pervasive is that kind of thinking today among Christians is when we look at Jesus, we think he’s a poor example of an evangelist. Here someone comes willing, and Jesus—whoa, wait, wait, not so fast.

We must never forget the same Jesus who said, “come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” There’s the freeness of the offer of the gospel. The same Jesus who said that also said, “take my yoke upon you and learn from me.” Saving faith entails a change of priorities and a change of commitments. Saving faith entails a surrender of our personal interests and our personal ambitions, surrender to Jesus Christ in full obedience to him. And then of course the thing that we learn as we come in is that we take his yoke on us, we learn that his yoke is easy and his burden is light. He so transforms our hearts and our affections. He sets our ambitions on higher things. And we find this living for Jesus thing is the most joyful life in the world. One, he teaches us something about evangelism.

Number two, this teaching of Jesus constitutes a test of the genuineness of our profession of faith. Jesus could hardly give us a more vivid description of the character of the Christian life than what he’s given us here. Take up your cross. Deny yourself. This is much more than repentance at the front door. It’s that. But it’s much more than that. It is a life of self-denying choices, painful though they may be. And if that’s Jesus’ demand, if that’s the demand of discipleship, and if eternity hinges on that, then what are we to think of those decisions for Jesus so-called, those decisions for Jesus that are made and left? “Oh, he made a decision when he was 13. No, it never made any difference, but he made the decision and he prayed the prayer. He even wrote the date in the corner of his flyleaf of his Bible.” He decided for Christ to stay. They may well, very, very well rest confidently in the decision that they made in the formulaic prayer that they prayed. Jesus did say also, Matthew chapter seven, “many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord,” and I’ll say to them, “depart from me, you workers of iniquity, I never knew you. The one who enters the kingdom of heaven is the one who does the will of my father.”

Closer to home, what of that professing Christian for whom Jesus seems to make so little difference? He professes Christ. But you wonder, where has it made any difference? I may attend church when it’s convenient. Won’t get involved. Never seems to cost anything. You wonder, where is this giving up yourself for Jesus? And for that matter then—and this is really too personal perhaps—we ought to ask ourselves: where is our cross? Where is it evident that we have denied anything in order to serve Jesus?

And that brings us to the third, and that is: what does all this tell us about the year ahead in 2025? How ought this consideration shape our New Year’s resolutions? What service can we give? What more can we be doing for Jesus? What more ought we be doing? What more can we give? How ought 2025 be more shaped like a cross? The Lord Jesus has given us this as the guiding consideration for life. “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.” Amen.

Let’s bow for prayer. Our Father, what a privilege it is to serve the Lord Jesus. We have experienced that transformation of heart and affections that we want more than anything to serve him. We confess that we still get confused with our priorities and we fail. We pray that you will make us what we ought to be. Make us this year more faithful in serving our Lord Jesus. We pray in his name, amen.