Total Devotion to Christ

Well, let me invite you to turn in your Bibles to Mark, chapter 8. Mark chapter 8. We're continuing in our total devotion. Series and if you want to give a title to this message today, it would be Total Devotion.

To Christ, total devotion to Christ. I was reading a couple of weeks ago about maybe some of you saw this in the news, about a student group at Oxford University called the Christian Union. And the purpose statement for this student group called the Christian Union is giving every student in Oxford University the chance to hear and respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ. To us, seated here in this room, to most of us, this purpose statement would seem innocent enough and wonderful enough, right?

But it came out in the news last month that this particular group The Christian Union has been banned from involvement in Oxford University's Freshman Fair. And the reason that was given was this, amongst other things, historically, Christianity's influence on many marginalized communities has been damaging in its methods of conversion and rules. of practice. And so they banned this group from being involved in the freshman fair.

Clearly, those who oppose this group oppose. Christianity, and they oppose Christianity because they view this as a religion that is damaging to people. And they're concerned about the harm that Christianity will have upon people. And we might read what I just read to you and hear of such concerns and respond by saying Christianity is not harmful to people.

And we would be right on one level in saying that, but if that was our only response, we would not be representing the whole truth about Christianity. In fact, one Christian writer named Matthew Roberts responded to the news story that I just shared with you by suggesting that those who view Christianity as harmful are actually on to something. In his article, he said, can Christianity harm you? Here's his answer, more than you can possibly imagine.

Listen to what he goes on to say, Jesus brings comfort, peace, joy, and contentment. And to all of that, we say, amen. He does. But how does Jesus go about bringing us such things?

Roberts continues. He says, Jesus brings comfort, peace, joy. And contentment, not by affirming what we already are, but by nothing less than destroying what we already are and making us new from the bottom up. Jesus came.

To ruin our lives. So that he can then rebuild them. And Matthew Roberts then goes to this very passage. And Mark 8.

To prove the truth of that assertion. The truth of the matter is that our salvation. involves the story of great harm coming to Jesus. He actually lost his life, that we might be saved and our salvation actually involves us following Jesus in the very path that he walked.

A path that involves suffering and rejection and many, many layers of dying. But with an amazingly positive outcome. On the far side of our dying. If you read the verses just prior to our passage today, you will discover that Jesus had asked his disciples the question, who do you say that I am?

And speaking for the rest of the disciples, Peter said to Jesus, you are the Christ. And in making that statement, Peter is essentially saying, Jesus, you are the Messiah King. Who will conquer your enemies and establish your eternal kingdom and save us. And Peter's statement is true enough, but there's a lot of Peter's own selfish ambitions that are intertwined with his belief in Jesus as the Messiah, and the same is true for the other disciples as well.

They're all excited about Jesus being the Messiah at this point. They're excited about entering into the glory of the kingdom of Christ. Together with him, but they have no clue at this point about what the journey to that glory is going to entail. If you read Matthew's account of this moment, Between Jesus and Peter and the disciples, you'll see that Jesus affirms Peter's and the disciples' conclusion about him.

He is indeed the Christ, the Son of the living God. But in Matthew's Gospel and here in Mark 8, we see Jesus also immediately beginning to teach. The disciples about the Messiah that he's going to be. And how he will carry out his messianic mission of actually saving us and what that ends up meaning for all of us who follow him.

If you are interested in living a life of total devotion to Jesus, you must listen to the truths that he gives to his disciples and to all of us here in our passage today. And that's how we're gonna frame our study this morning. We're gonna observe 5 truths that Jesus presses upon. His disciples and us in order to help us to understand and walk a path of, of true devotion to Him.

The first of these truths is we can state it this way, is that Christ's death and his resurrection are necessary parts of his messianic mission for us. Christ's death and his resurrection are necessary parts of his messianic mission for us. If the disciples are going to follow Jesus, they need to have some idea of the path that Jesus is going to be walking from this point forward. And so Jesus tells them in verse 31.

Look at what he says in verse 31. He says, and he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priest and the scribes, who were the most esteemed men in Israel. And be killed. And after 3 days rise again, and he was stating the matter plainly.

Notice what Jesus is predicting here about his path. He's predicting that he will suffer many things, that he will be rejected. By highly esteemed and powerful people. He will be killed.

And after all of that, he will rise again 3 days after he is killed. So notice the sequence, suffer, rejected, killed. Rise. Jesus will experience a resurrection of life, but that resurrection will come on the far end of his dying, and Jesus is predicting all of this.

And he's doing more than merely predicting these things. Notice his use of the word must. Jesus, this is, this is the language of necessity. Jesus is telling his disciples that his suffering and his rejection, and his death, and resurrection are necessary.

As Mark says in verse 32, Jesus is stating the matter plainly. And what he's saying basically is this, in order for me to do the saving of you all of Israel and And the Gentiles that I have come to accomplish, I must. Suffer and be rejected and be killed and then rise again three days later, and I'm willing to endure all of that for the good of those that I have come to save. Well, Peter He is listening to this little lesson that Jesus is teaching and he does not like this lesson at all.

He loved other lessons that Jesus taught, but he did not like this lesson. Observe what he does in verse 32, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. Imagine being so bold. As to pull Jesus, whom you just said was the Christ, pulling him aside and rebuking him.

Jesus is the master, the Messiah, Peter is the disciple, yet Peter stops Jesus in his teaching and rebukes his master. In Matthew 16:22, and Matthew's account of this moment, Peter says to Jesus, God forbid it, Lord. This shall never happen to you. So think about what's happening.

Jesus has just articulated a plan of salvation that was laid out before the foundations of the earth were even laid. He's saying these things must happen. This plan that he's just articulated is eternally ancient. Yet Peter has thought about it for about 2 minutes.

And decided that this plan is not a good one. So he rebukes Jesus and says, no way. God forbid that this should ever happen to you. And guys, Peter is as sincere As he could be He sincerely holds to this religious sentiment that Jesus should not die.

And he actually tries to impose his ideas onto Jesus. Trying to get Jesus to conform to his ideas. And people do this all the time. Even today They say to Jesus, God forbid, Jesus, that you actually said this.

And the members of the Jesus seminar. Go through the gospels and conveniently decide that 90% of what the Bible says that Jesus said, was not an original saying of Jesus. Amazingly, the 10% that remains, the Jesus seminar happens to agree with. Or Thomas Jefferson says to Jesus, God forbid that you actually did these miracles.

So he opens his Bible and cuts out of his Bible, the story of every miracle that Jesus did, including the story of his resurrection from the dead. Or Muslims. Say to Jesus, God forbid that you, of all people would actually die on a cross. So they come up with a belief that God somehow removed Jesus from the cross before he died, and many Muslims believe that God put Judas there in his place because Judas deserved that.

Several years ago, one liberal professing Christian named Virginia Mollencott said these words. She said, I don't think we need a theory of atonement at all. I don't think we need folks hanging on crosses and blood dripping and weird stuff like that. Notice her use of the word need.

Jesus says he must suffer and be rejected and be killed in order to fulfill his messianic mission for all of us, yet Virginia Molanott says that there's no need. For that. And that's basically what Peter is saying. To Jesus So the question is, what does Jesus think of such efforts?

Look at what Jesus does in verse 33. says, but turning around and seeing his disciples. who probably were in total agreement with Peter here. He, Jesus, rebuked Peter and said, Get behind me, Satan.

For you are not setting your mind on God's interest but man's. There's actually nowhere else in the gospel accounts where we see Jesus speaking so severely. Against any of his disciples. He actually calls Peter Satan.

Treating him as if he were Satan's emissary or mouthpiece. And I am sure that Jesus' response here stunned Peter beyond words. If nothing else, guys, what happens here shows us that a person can be totally well-intentioned, totally sincere, and yet profoundly satanically wrong. And how careful we need to be to make sure that we are submitting ourselves to what Jesus teaches, even when he is teaching something that goes against every grain of our normal human understanding.

Observe what Jesus says to Peter to explain why he views Peter as the mouthpiece of Satan right now. He says, for you are not setting your mind on God's interest, but man's. Question for you, does that surprise you? Does it, does it surprise you here that Jesus would call Peter Satan and then explain Peter's error in this way?

We might have expected Jesus to say, get behind me, Satan, because you are setting your mind on the interest of hell. But Jesus doesn't say that. Instead, he just indicates that what made Peter the mouthpiece of Satan was merely the fact that Peter was setting his mind. On man's interest.

Not gods. And again, we should be warned by Peter's error here. Peter was choosing to believe things about Jesus that were merely human in their origin. Rather than divine.

He was serving basically just a merely human agenda. Rather than a divine one, and that's all that a person needs to do in order to be hugely satanically wrong. And notice the fact that Jesus doesn't let Peter's religious ideas stand. Jesus doesn't respond to Peter by saying, well, Peter, I guess that's your truth, and I appreciate that.

And, all ideas are equally valid and, So thank you for sharing your truth with, with me. No, Jesus flatly rejects Peter's religious ideas and calls Peter Satan. And tells him to get out of his way and tells him that he is setting his mind on merely human interest rather than God's. Are you willing to follow a savior?

Who will confront you like this. Or do you just want a savior who coddles you? Who coddles your every notion. And does nothing but affirms you.

Peter, right now is getting a very clear view. of Jesus here and the decision is now gonna be Peter's as to what he's going to do. Will Peter let himself be rebuked? And challenged and fall in behind Jesus and follow him or will Peter be a fragile snowflake who is now offended by Jesus?

Will he keep following Jesus or will he run off and go find a safe zone to sit in for a few hours and heal? Fortunately, the following chapters reveal that even though he did so woefully imperfectly, Peter continues following his Lord, embracing a savior who was willing to sit in judgment of his thinking and challenge and rebuke him when that's what he needed. And that's the savior you're gonna get if you choose to follow Jesus. This segues us into the second truth that Jesus gives to his disciples and to us to help us to understand and walk the path of true devotion to Him.

Let's word it this way, a person's self-denial and death are necessary parts of following Christ to glory. A person's self-denial and death are necessary parts of following Christ to glory. Look at what Jesus does at the beginning of verse 34, says, and he summoned the crowd with his disciples. Jesus evidently has attracted quite a following as he is heading toward Jerusalem on this particular visit.

When you put all the pieces together from the different gospel accounts, you learn that people are following Jesus. On this journey to Jerusalem because they think that this visit to Jerusalem is gonna be different from any other visit. They suspect that this will be the time when he's going to reveal himself as the Messiah. As the king and perhaps even establish his kingdom on earth.

And so they're excited, they've got wonderful visions of grandeur dancing around in their heads. We know that the disciples themselves were thinking about what seats they're gonna get. In the kingdom of Christ and who among them is gonna be the greatest. In other words, they, they're all thinking, Jesus may be very soon entering into the glory of His kingdom.

And we together with Him are gonna be raised to high positions of glory and power in His kingdom in the very near future. But little do they realize. That if they wish to be raised to that glory with Jesus, In his kingdom, they must themselves take the same path that Jesus. took to his raising.

That he just told them what happened. To them, Jesus says, verse 34, if anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross. And follow me Notice the word must again. Yes, it's necessary for Jesus to die and be raised, that must happen.

Evidently, it's also a must for us if we're going to follow Him to take up our cross, deny ourselves and follow Him. And Jesus says if anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Now, before we look at what Jesus says that a person needs to do, By way of denying himself and taking up his cross and following Jesus, we need to first give a little bit of quick thought to the if clause. That we have in this verse, verse 34.

Look carefully at what Jesus says. If anyone wishes to come after me, what does Jesus mean by that? Is he just saying if anyone wishes to follow me, maybe. But I think Jesus is meaning more than that.

We need to make note of the fact that in verse 38, Jesus uses this very same verb translated come. To speak of the moment when he, Jesus comes in the glory of His Father. With his holy angels. And I think we do well to let our minds go there to that coming of Jesus, when we think about Jesus meaning here in verse 34 when he says, if anyone wishes to come after me.

Here's what Jesus is saying. He's saying, if it is anyone's wish to come after me, when I enter into the glory of my kingdom. You see, guys, the expression come after me in all likelihood speaks of the destination of the journey. Not the initiation.

of the journey of following Christ. And Jesus is pointing to that desirable destination that he knew that his disciples wanted. And he's basically saying if it is anyone's wish. To achieve the desirable outcome of arriving after me, following in my train as I enter into the glory of my kingdom, then here's what he must do if he wants.

To achieve that outcome. He must deny himself. And take up his cross and Follow me. He must deny himself.

What does that mean? That if you're going to follow Jesus, if you hope one day to follow Him when he enters into the glory of His kingdom, you must deny yourself. What does that mean? Well, to deny yourself is to rebuff your own ideas.

Of how you think things should go. It means to renounce your right to create your own religion and to craft your own path to heaven. It means to reject your own righteousness and your own self-fort at your salvation. It means to deny yourself as your own savior.

And to let Jesus be that savior. It means to reject that part of you. That always only wants to think in terms of your immediate and your isolated good, without any regard for God or the good of other people. To deny yourself means to deny yourself the right to tell Jesus how to do his job as Messiah.

Keep in mind that this word that is translated deny here is the same word that is used to speak of Peter's later denial of Jesus. Which tells us how strong of a word this is. When Peter denied Jesus, he didn't just say no to something that Jesus had asked for. He totally disowned Jesus.

He swore an oath that he didn't know Jesus and uttered a curse while he was at it. He wouldn't even speak Jesus' name. He just swore an oath and says, I don't know that man. That's what it means to deny someone.

And Jesus is telling us that if we're going to come after him in the glory of His kingdom, we must get used to denying ourselves like that. Jodie Foster, the Hollywood. actor once gave this requirement for a religion that she personally would find acceptable. She said for me to accept a religion, it must embrace me and who I am without putting preconditions on what makes me whole.

Notice, again, the language of necessity. In her words, it must embrace me. And there can't be any preconditions. Well, Jesus puts preconditions.

On us and says, if you wish to come after me into my kingdom, you must deny. Disown yourself. And The morning Sunday school class that meets here in this room in the 9 o'clock hour, about a month or so ago, Dan Whittaker. Quoted from Herman Melville's Moby Dick.

Where a preacher in that. story says the following. He says, if we obey God, we must disobey ourselves. And in the context, he's talking about Jonah, God told Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach.

Jonah didn't want to. For Jonah to obey God's call to go to Nineveh, he had to disobey himself. And that's essentially What the path of obedience to Christ looks like. That's Jesus' exact point here.

He's saying if anyone wants to come after me. He will need to obey me at all costs, even when obeying me means disobeying himself. Disobeying his deeply held beliefs and deeply held desires. Jesus also says that the person who wishes to come after him must take up his cross.

just when you think, I think I've got a way of understanding, deny myself and I got that worked out in my head, maybe a way around that, you then come to the next thing and it's take up your cross, which is the most startling language that Jesus could possibly have used. Keep in mind that crucifixion was the most scandalous way to die in this day. It was such a hideous means of dying that no Roman citizen could be crucified on a cross, even though they could be killed by other forms of execution.

To add to the indignity of death by crucifixion, the condemned person would often have to carry.

Their own cross to the place of their execution. Imagine that happening. Today Imagine a condemned person. Having to walk through downtown Riverside pulling their electric chair in a cart.

Behind them As they walk for 1 mile or two to the site of their execution. What a spectacle that would be, and Jesus is saying, that's what following me is often going to feel like. If you follow me, the world is going to reject you the same way that it rejected me and the world will put a cross on your back and you need to be willing to embrace that cross and go on a journey that will culminate in your eventual death to self and to the world. A journey where you don't fight against that dying but you welcome it.

A journey where you actually take up your cross and start heading into that dying. Jesus says that a person, if he wants to follow after Jesus, arrive after Jesus in the glory of His kingdom, he must deny himself now and take up his cross and Jesus says, and follow me. Which means to follow Jesus the way that a disciple would follow a teacher. Jesus is saying, watch my steps and do whatever you see me do and do all of that together in relationship with me.

Letting me teach you and guide you and be your companion as you go. I will be with you every step that you take. And I will help you and teach you and show you how to do this. You will never be left to do this alone.

As your master. I will be with you as you follow me in this. And so this right here, guys, is actually a beautiful summation of the Christian life that goes out to, to all people. Jesus says, if you wish to come following after me and the glory of my kingdom, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me on the path.

That I myself am going to walk to Calvary and then through Calvary to glory. Now, this is a tough call that Jesus lays upon all of us and he knows that we're going to need some motivation to do this and that's basically what he provides for us the rest of the way. On the surface, it initially sounds like Jesus is trying to harm us, that he's trying to kill us, but as we listen to him further in the following verses, we discover that he's actually rescuing us from self. He's actually saving our lives.

And this brings us to the next truth that Jesus presses upon us to help us understand and walk the path of total devotion to Him. Number 3, we can state the truth this way, the person who loses their life for Christ will save their life. Notice in verse 35 how what Jesus says here is all about life. He says, for whoever wishes to save his life, will lose it speaking of his life, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it speaking of his life.

In total, there are 4 references to life in verse 35, and with regard to this life, Jesus uses the words lose and save twice. If you wanna know how to lose your life or save your life, this is a go to verse. And Jesus states the calculus both ways here in verse 35, and the choice is gonna be mine and yours. If you would rather save or preserve your life as it now exists apart from Christ, Wrapped up in self.

Then you will lose out on your only chance at real life. But if you're willing to lose your life as it now stands, you will actually in the end find that you have saved your life. That's what Jesus is saying here. To understand Jesus' point, think of an analogy.

If I, if I was talking this morning to a chain smoker, And I said to that person, if you are willing to lose your lifestyle of smoking 4 packs of cigarettes a day, you will save your life. What am I implying by that statement? I'm implying that his present lifestyle. is a lifestyle that's killing him.

And that's Jesus' point here. He says whoever wishes to save his life as it now stands. This killing lifestyle. is going to lose his life.

Your life as it now stands apart from Christ wrapped up in self is killing you. But whoever loses his life of selfishness and Christlessness, for my sake, Jesus says, and the gospel's sake, will save his life. Jesus' language implies that A person's present lifestyle of living apart from Jesus, living in sin, centered on self. is a lifestyle that is deadly.

But if we're willing to lose that life, And make our life all about Jesus and the gospel, then We will find that we have saved our lives. Most people, let's think about this for a moment. Most people who hold to a certain lifestyle, hold to that lifestyle. Because it's the best thing that they have come up with, given their circumstances to bring them into the experience of life at its fullest.

You might be here this morning and you are, man, I, I don't know Jesus, I'm not following him. Maybe you've claimed to be a believer in Jesus at some point, but you're living in disobedience. To him, you're doing what you want to do. You're following.

Self Living for the kingdom of self. And that. But I, I would have enough respect for you to know that you're making those wrong choices. To go your own way.

Because you think in making those choices, you can obtain for yourself the experience of life. If a person gets drunk or does drugs or seeks sexual pleasure outside of marriage, they do those things in search of life. They think such things will bring them into the experience of true life. So much so that these very behaviors become a part of their definition of life.

It becomes their lifestyle. And they're afraid to give those things up for fear that, man, if I give this up, I'm gonna miss out on something that is essential to my experience of life. People do this all the time. We've all done this.

All the while trying to find life and things that are killing them. We're not just talking about a lifestyle of smoking a carton of cigarettes a day or getting drunk and killing brain cells and jeopardizing your health or engaging in sexual immorality that leaves you vulnerable to a sexually transmitted disease, which can lead to cancer, which can kill you. We're talking about anything that a person does that is centered on self, apart from Christ and apart from the gospel. If you live your life seeking to fulfill your every whim.

Living only for yourself, you are killing yourself in thousands of ways, becoming more dead with each wish fulfilled. This is why Solomon in the Old Testament could become the wealthiest man in the world of his day. He could build gardens and houses for himself and have countless servants who do everything for him that he does not want to do for himself. He built monuments in his name.

He experimented with the pleasures of wine. He had 1000 women at his beck and call to satisfy his every sexual whim. Anything he wanted, he said, I did not withhold. Myself from anything that I ever wanted, and yet at the end of it all, he says, it's all vanity and striving after the wind.

And I hated life. It's not like he hated life before he got those things, but now he's loving life. This is Solomon talking after he had achieved all of these desires, and he says, I hated life and I completely despaired. Solomon was a man who tried to find life through all of these means that you read about in Ecclesiastes 1 and 2, and in the end, he found a life that he despised.

A life that was actually death. True life is not found. And doing whatever selfish thing you want to do. True life is found in Jesus and the gospel.

True life is found when we're delivered from self and saved into Jesus and into his gospel. True life is experience to the degree that you're willing to make the leap. And let your life go and let it become all about Jesus and all about his gospel. Understanding the gospel, savoring it, living in the good of it, and advancing its cause in the world.

All of history guys, all of history is all about Jesus. He's the centerpiece of human history. And his gospel is the macro narrative. That is more ancient than the world itself.

And the only real and lasting happiness. That anyone could find is found when a person dies to all lesser things. And begins to orbit his life around this Jesus and His gospel. And embraces his or her place in the larger gospel story of what God is doing in the world.

This leads us to the next truth that Jesus presses upon us to help us to understand and walk the path of total devotion to him. Let's word it this way. The human soul is more valuable than any worldly gain. The human soul is more valuable than any worldly gain.

Look at Jesus' question in verse 36. No one was better at asking questions than Jesus. He says, what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit or lose his soul? Notice the words profit, gain, forfeit.

In verse 36. If you're hearing what Jesus has been saying thus far, about taking up your cross, following Him, and you find yourself thinking, well, what profit would I personally gain from that? Jesus would be OK with you thinking that way. He actually wants you to think about what is most personally profitable to you.

If you're hearing his call in this passage and you find yourself worrying about missing out or losing out on something important, Jesus would be OK with you worrying about that. He wants you to think that way. He wants you to be worried about losing out on something important. In fact, he's already thinking this way for you.

And his point in verse 36, is to let that the least profitable thing you could possibly do is to hold on to your selfish and Christless life. That you now have and just live for you. Jesus starts off with this question, what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? He's saying, some of you listening, you may not wanna follow me now, and instead you may wish to hold on to your life as it now exists and pursue everything that this world has to offer to you.

You don't wanna die to the world, you wanna become alive to the world and just grab as much as you can of what this world has to offer. Fair enough. Let's say you succeed in that venture. And you experience success beyond your wildest dreams, and you gain the whole world and everything that there is to be obtained and experienced in it, yet you lose your soul.

What have you been profited? Jesus' language here is so sobering and it It teaches us something about the inestimable value of one human soul. You can take everything in the world, this entire planet that anyone would say has any value, you could put it all together, you could add it all up and it would not be more valuable than one human soul. It would not be more valuable than your soul.

In part, Jesus is saying that you already possess something that is more valuable than all the things you're chasing after. And that is your soul. And the only way to save your soul is to align your life with Jesus and, and the gospel. Guys, I, I, we should stand in awe.

Of the human soul. My goodness. Your soul and the soul of other people. The human soul is a creation of such gravitas.

That the only thing that can truly complete it is Jesus and the gospel. If somehow you could obtain and partake of everything that the world has to offer, your soul would still be unsatisfied. Because the appetite of your individual soul is bigger than the world itself. Nothing can begin to answer the cry of the human soul except Jesus.

And it's not until a person Come to Jesus, surrenders to his love that their soul truly has found its match. And has found its home. But imagine that a person hears Jesus. And ignores what he's saying and in the end, he chases after all this stuff and loses his soul.

He reaches the end of his life. I'm about to leave from this world into the next and I can't take any of this with me and even while he lives, he realizes I'm more dead than I've ever been just like Solomon. Reald in the book of Ecclesiastes. How will such a person redeem The soul That they've realized they've lost.

They think, well, maybe I can save it with all the worldly things that I've acquired throughout my life. Well, Jesus says, what will a man give in exchange for his soul? And the answer is nothing. You cannot.

Give anything in exchange for the saving of your soul. One commentator whose last name is Gill. see if I can find it. It says this.

He says all the riches of the world and the whole world itself are not equivalent to one human soul or a sufficient ransom for it. Riches will not profit in the day of wrath or deliver a soul from damnation. And ruin In other words, one human soul is so valuable that it cannot be redeemed with all of the wealth of the world combined. Do you really want to stand before God at the judgment in a future day and have no means by which you can redeem your soul?

Guys, this is why Jesus came into the world and why he said I must suffer and I must die. Because he gave his life in exchange for your soul. He died to redeem your soul for himself. And guys, your soul is never more fully yours than when it's under his ownership.

Think about that. Jesus. came into this world and he died so that you might believe in him and get to keep your soul forever. And it is this Jesus who calls you to deny yourself and take up your cross and follow Him all the way to eternal glory.

Jesus knows that at the bottom of our unwillingness to give up our life is fear. Some people might be thinking, what if I give up everything for Jesus and I miss out on something truly great? This call of Jesus to die and find life on the other side of dying, it all sounds so risky. Maybe I should just not do that and play it safe.

Well, Jesus wants to give you something to worry about. On the complete opposite side of the ledger. Turns out there's no safe option for you or for me. And this brings us to the final truth that Jesus presses upon us to help us to understand and walk a path of total devotion to him.

Number 5, at his coming, Christ will be ashamed of anyone who is now ashamed of him. Look at the final announcement that Jesus makes here, verse 38, for whoever is ashamed of me and my words and this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels. We now actually come full circle and we can complete the list of all that happens to Jesus. Here's the list, Jesus will suffer and be rejected and be killed and be raised, and he will come in glory, the glory of His Father with the holy angels, and what an unbelievable day of honor and triumph and glory that will be.

And when that day comes, we know from the scriptures that Jesus will embrace, he will gladly associate himself with all of those who had followed him and who had cast their lot with him. He will embrace those who without shame, decided to go all the way. With him, all in with Jesus. And cherishing his words.

In fact, he will glorify such persons and bring them into His kingdom and share freely his glory with them for all of eternity. Such people will come after him. When he comes into the glory of His kingdom. But in verse 38, Jesus speaks about what he will do with the person.

Who is now ashamed. Of him and his words. The person who allows himself to be carried along with this adulterous and sinful generation, the person who decides to run with the majority, who feels safe in the crowd, and who will not deny himself and take up his cross and follow Jesus. Jesus says, whoever is ashamed of me and my words, In this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man also will be ashamed of him.

When he, the Son of Man, comes in the glory of his Father with his holy angels. Turns out Jesus will be ashamed to be associated with such a person. He will be ashamed to have such a person in his kingdom. Such persons will not be welcome and they will be cast out forever.

And please know that this day is coming just as surely as the sun is going to rise tomorrow. Jesus will come in his glory. At the culmination of human history. And when he comes in the glory of His kingdom with the holy angels, every eye is going to see him and no one has seen anything so spectacular as he will be in that day.

And the only thing that's gonna matter to you and to me in that moment is what does, what does that one think of me? And when we stand before Him, when you stand before Jesus to be judged. By him, you will wait with bated breath to know what his verdict is going to be on you. Your heart will be hoping against hope.

That he will recognize you and be happy to see you. And let you into the glory of His kingdom. And right here in this passage, Jesus is saying to all of us in this room, if there is one who is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, in that future moment when I come in the glory of my Father with the holy angels, I will be ashamed. To be associated with that person.

In Matthew 25, we learned that he will say, To such a one depart from me, I never knew you. He will deny such a person as emphatically. As Peter denied Jesus. So it is what it is.

There's no safe option for any of us. You either renounce your selfishness and sin and follow Jesus now, losing your life for his sake and ultimately finding real life on the other side of that, or you deny Jesus and go with the flow of this present sinful and adulterous generation, and in the end, you lose your soul and you stand before Jesus. And experience him being too ashamed to associate himself with you. In that moment So in closing, how do, how do we respond to this summons this morning from Jesus?

Well, to answer the question, let's just ponder real quickly how the disciples responded to a summons. The disciples, they're gonna hear everything that Jesus says here. And they're gonna think they understand, and they're gonna say, yeah, I'm gonna follow Jesus. I'm gonna deny myself, I'm gonna take up my cross, I'm gonna follow him, and they follow Jesus to Jerusalem, but they don't understand 95% of what Jesus is talking about in these verses, right?

Yet amazingly, Jesus lets them follow Him. Even though he already knows they're not going to take up their cross, they're not going to deny themselves the way that they should. In fact, We learned from the gospel accounts that as they follow him to Jerusalem, thinking they're denying themselves and taking up their cross, they're almost immediately gonna be arguing over who's the greatest in his kingdom. They're going to follow him, yet in a short time when their lives are really on the line.

They're all going to fall away from him on the night in which he was arrested. They're going to flee. They're going to drop their crosses and run. Far from denying himself, Peter is going to deny Jesus.

3 times and commit. The worst sins of his lifetime in the very near future. So there's a lot of fumbling ahead for these disciples as they follow Jesus on the road ahead, yet they choose to follow him in all sincerity and Jesus lets them. And Jesus is faithful to teach them and instruct them and pray for them.

Along the way and assure them and forgive them and give them perspective and help them to see beyond their fumblings and their failures. And he faithfully takes them deeper and deeper into an understanding of what he really means by what he says here in Mark 8. Ultimately, these disciples that Jesus is talking to grow in faith and understanding and they learn how to die, and they did die, many of them for their Lord. And one day their wish is gonna come true.

They're gonna come following after Jesus. They will come after him when he enters into the glory of his kingdom. And that same choice. is the choice that we are confronted with today.

And so here's my question. Are you willing to cast your lot with Jesus and go all in on Jesus? And follow him on this journey that involves you learning how to deny yourself. How to take up your cross.

As a part of the path. To ultimate glory with Jesus. Will you follow him knowing that Jesus is going to be extremely hazardous to your selfishness. Into your sin He will be hazardous to your life as you now know it.

But are you willing to let him draw you close to him? And surrender to his love. That will ruin you in 1000 ways, while at the same time rebuilding your life into something that is purer and truer and more satisfying. than you can possibly imagine.

Two decades ago, a woman named Rosaria Butterfield. said yes to these very questions that I just asked, and she was saved out of a lifestyle of unbelief and sin. And 10 weeks ago, she wrote. An article Where she talked a little bit about her testimony.

I just want to read to you a short portion of what she says. And we'll close with this. She says, 20 years ago, I lived as a lesbian. I delighted in my lover.

Our home on one of the Finger Lakes, our golden retrievers and our careers. When Christ claimed me for his own, the gospel gave me a light that was ruinous. It ruined me for the life. I had loved The Lord's light illumined my sin through the law and illumined my hope through Jesus and the gospel.

The gospel destroyed me. Before the Lord build me back up and saying yes to Jesus and no to the desires of my flesh, I learned that the only way to peace with my God was through the cross. The cross that Jesus died on. And the one that I was called with the help of Jesus.

To carry And for the last 20 years, Rosario Butterfield has been discovering a whole new life that lies on the other side of Whatever dying she has had to do. And one day, Rosario Butterfield will come following after Jesus. When he comes in the glory of His kingdom. And so can you.

And I If we're willing to make this same journey. Of Disobeying and denying ourselves. Taking up our cross. And following this Jesus.

Who took up his cross for us. who laid down his life. So that you and I could have life in him. Let's bow our heads together.

If you're here today and In any way, on any level, you have felt the Lord Jesus speaking to you and calling to you, I, I plead with you to hear his call and respond. Do not be ashamed to stand with Jesus. And decide with his words. Be willing to renounce your little puny little kingdom of self.

And embrace the kingdom of Christ. And find what life is really all about. And through that for your soul to find its home. Even where you're seated right now, you can respond to Jesus in faith.

Surrender to his love and ask Him to be your Lord and your Savior and your Messiah, your leader from this point on. And if you make that decision this morning and respond to him in this way, come and Let me know about that. Let us know. And if there's any way we can help you, we would love to do that.

Lord, we thank you for The way that you speak to us. Words that we need to hear, words that break in pieces. Things that should be broken in pieces and words that give life and make whole what should be made whole. I plead with you, Lord, as one of the pastors here at Cornerstone to just cause an outpouring of your spirit upon me and upon all of us that we would just be Taken away with the love of Jesus, utterly transformed, revolutionized by His great love and by his present and future glory.

That we would see His goodness and enter more fully into the life that he died for us to experience. All of this call, as difficult as it may seem, is not nearly as hard to do as what we often try to do as we live for ourselves. And this call comes from the one. Who took up a cross and died.

For us We thank you, Lord, for this opportunity to give our offerings to you, receive these funds, do much with all that we give to you this morning and this offering in the name of Jesus, and all God's people said.