Imagine yourself outside washing your car. A vagabond-looking man walks up to you and says, "If you leave cleaning you car to come with me, I'll teach you to clean men."
You're thinking, "What? You could use some cleaning yourself, buddy. What are you talking about?"
Strangely enough, you drop all of your cleaning supplies and you leave with him. You and a couple of friends follow him for quite some time. You get to a hilltop and he tells you to sit and wait. Soon thousands of people have turned out to see this mysterious man. He preaches for a long time on a wide variety of topics in ways that you've never before experienced. He claims he's the Son of God.
Then the guy takes you on his Magic Tour. He starts doing all sorts of miraculous things: healing people, stopping storms, etc. Then one day when you're hanging out he turns to you and says, "You know, if you want to continue to follow me, you'll have to go to the electric chair."
Up until now you've just been hanging out. Just assisting when you were needed. Now this guy wants you to die? How can you follow someone if you're dead? Why is he asking me to go to the electric chair?
That's what Jesus asked of his disciples and that's what he asks of us today. He asks us to die. He doesn't ask for a quick, peaceful death either. He chose the most torturous death he could think of, the one he would soon experience: death on a cross.
Matthew 16:24 says, "If anyone would come after me, let him take up him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." But what does that mean? The disciples probably didn't know either. Jesus continued to say, "For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." Jesus is asking us to take up our cross by denying ourselves. We must deny our selfish desires. We must starve and kill everything in us that is not of Christ. We cannot continue to live selfishly and sinfully if we want to have eternal life with Christ. Our sole purpose is to glorify God. That is why we were created. If we're going to die for something, shouldn't it be for the sake of glorifying the Creator?
It was hard teachings like this that caused many of the disciples to leave in John 6:66-69, "After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, "Do you want to go away as well?"Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God."
So, will the call to die cause you to turn back, or will you be like Peter and realize that your faith is worth the cost?
Then the guy takes you on his Magic Tour. He starts doing all sorts of miraculous things: healing people, stopping storms, etc. Then one day when you're hanging out he turns to you and says, "You know, if you want to continue to follow me, you'll have to go to the electric chair."
Up until now you've just been hanging out. Just assisting when you were needed. Now this guy wants you to die? How can you follow someone if you're dead? Why is he asking me to go to the electric chair?
That's what Jesus asked of his disciples and that's what he asks of us today. He asks us to die. He doesn't ask for a quick, peaceful death either. He chose the most torturous death he could think of, the one he would soon experience: death on a cross.
Matthew 16:24 says, "If anyone would come after me, let him take up him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." But what does that mean? The disciples probably didn't know either. Jesus continued to say, "For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." Jesus is asking us to take up our cross by denying ourselves. We must deny our selfish desires. We must starve and kill everything in us that is not of Christ. We cannot continue to live selfishly and sinfully if we want to have eternal life with Christ. Our sole purpose is to glorify God. That is why we were created. If we're going to die for something, shouldn't it be for the sake of glorifying the Creator?
It was hard teachings like this that caused many of the disciples to leave in John 6:66-69, "After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, "Do you want to go away as well?"Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God."
So, will the call to die cause you to turn back, or will you be like Peter and realize that your faith is worth the cost?
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