Luke chapter 9 and verse 23. This is the Lord Jesus who is speaking.
And he said to them all, if any man will come after me, let him
deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whosoever will save his life
shall lose it, but whosoever will lose his life for my sake,
the same shall save it. For what is a man advantaged
if he gain the whole world and lose himself or be cast away? For whosoever shall be ashamed
of me and of my words, of him shall the son of man be ashamed
when he shall come in his own glory and in his father's and
of the holy angels. But I tell you of a truth, there
be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they
see the kingdom of God. Amen. May the Lord bless this
reading of his word. Any quiet time alone with his
disciples that the Lord had, that the Lord desired, was always
short-lived and The Lord had been speaking from our past passages,
our past studies, we've seen that the Lord had been speaking
to his disciples about his ministry and his calling and how it was
that he must suffer many things and be rejected of the elders
and the chief priests and scribes and be slain and be raised the
third day. So this was the verse that we
read just before this little passage here today. And the Lord
never shied away from this reality of his death. He knew what he
was in the world to do and he never hid it from his disciples. His disciples, however, though
they heard the words often, seemed to struggle to get the message
or to learn the lesson. And Peter had been especially
vocal in dismissing what the Lord was saying. He likely meant
it constructively. He likely meant it positively. But nevertheless, he reproved
the Lord for saying that he was going to die. And the Lord had
been just as forthright with Peter, saying, Get thee behind
me, Satan, thou art an offence unto me, for thou savourest not
the things that be of God, but those that be of men. And how ready we all are to savour,
to relish, to enjoy the things that be of men at the expense
of the things that be of God. And doubtless, the sharpness
of this rebuke quietened the disciples in this moment. And it seems that the Lord used
the attention that had arisen here to carry forward this message
of bearing one's cross and recognising that the Christian walk and to
be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ is not going to be an
easy pathway. So he returned to the larger
number of followers And it seems perhaps likely that these people
were following after Jesus and his disciples. So the Lord had
sought this quiet time with his disciples. Now he turns to the
larger number of followers who were perhaps pursuing the Lord
and his disciples at a little distance. And he confronts them
all, casual follower, and ardent disciple with a challenge concerning
the cost and the implications of being a believer in Christ
and living according to his gospel. Now that the Lord spoke to this
larger group is revealed by inclusion of the word all in verse 23,
but some of the parallel passages in Matthew and Mark are a little
bit more explicit about the fact that he called the multitude
together and confronted them with this statement. It is not
only those who preach such as the apostles and ministers of
the gospel who can expect to be tested and tried in this life. The reality, the truth is that
all believers have crosses to bear and all believers must be
prepared to deny themselves That is, to deny and forgo the pleasures
and the ambitions of the world and the flesh, even their own
natural desires, for the testimony of the faith. All believers should
be prepared to follow the Lord wherever he leads. And that's
the imagery behind bearing our cross. Whatever the Lord leads
us into, whatever the providences are, whatever the circumstances
of our life, that the great God, the sovereign God, the controlling
God, the God who does all things together for good to those who
love him, this God who is in control of the end from the beginning,
we follow him. bearing our cross, meaning that
we follow him, recognising that his will is right and best, no
matter what that entails. These followers of the Lord,
perhaps the all to whom he spoke here, the larger number, they
were in this moment fair-weather followers. It wasn't really very
difficult to align themselves with Christ and his gospel when
there was no concerted opposition, when loaves and fishes were being
miraculously multiplied, and when talk was rife about Christ
setting up an earthly kingdom in which all his supporters would
prosper. If the disciples persisted in
harbouring such notions right to the end, I'm sure that the
common people did too. And the Lord had just disabused
his immediate disciples of their false notions. And in turning
thus and speaking thus to the multitude, he confronted them
all with the stark reality of what it entails, what it involves
to be followers of Christ. You desire prosperity. I speak
of persecution. Actually, Luke's account that
we have here before us today, as opposed to Matthew and Mark,
it's slightly different by the inclusion of the word daily in
the Lord's statement. When he says here, If any man
will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross
daily and follow me. So Luke inserts this little word
daily. Ours is a daily cross. It is as though the Lord says
trials and trouble of one sort or another will never be far
from my people in this life. Indeed, they are to be expected
every day and they are to be submitted to every day. For some it may be open aggression. For some it might be persistent
temptation. For some it's pain. For some
it's poverty. For some it's emotional stress.
For some it's loneliness. For some it's family pressures.
But mark it as true, the Lord's people are daily beset with challenges. Call them crosses, call them
thorns in the flesh, or trials of mind and body. There will
constantly be a devil to withstand, a world to resist, and the flesh
with which to contend. Our Christian pilgrimage is a
matter of commitment and dedication and resolve. The natural man
desires comfort and ease. His ambition is peace and prosperity
and pleasure in earthly sensual things. However, the Lord has
taught us that this world is temporal and its days are numbered. Believers come to understand
it's fruitless trying to build our hopes on what this world
can offer when it's won and it's lost so quickly. Being preoccupied
with time and things of this world readily fits the worldling's
view of life, but it cannot satisfy those who seek a continuing city,
a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. And the lesson of these verses
here today is that our souls, brothers and sisters, are more
precious than anything this world can give. Our soul is the breath
of God. God loves us. Christ died for
us. And the Holy Spirit daily ministers
and comforts us. The angels rejoice at our salvation
and they fly to our assistance as ministering spirits. We have crosses to bear, but
we have helps that we know not of. Hebrews says that they are
sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation. That's us. We cannot be content
with the world's baubles when we are heirs of eternal life
and glory. And all the persons of the Godhead
have laboured for the eternal wellbeing of our souls. And as the angels rejoice over
one sinner that repenteth, even so hell rages at one saint who
is revealed by conversion, by faith and by perseverance, to
be a blood-bought child of God. Men and women have always sought
riches and power. But of what value is all the
wealth and power a man can gather up in his lifetime when eternal
realities dawn in those first few seconds after death? You can leave this world as a
president or as a pope with all the pomp and ceremony, all the
praise and prestige that can be given. but we go naked into
the presence of God if we have not Christ. His blood and his
righteousness are necessary to cleanse and cover us before God. the pyramids in Egypt, the high
status burials that are constantly being uncovered by archaeologists
around the world, testify to the fact that people everywhere
have tried to take their riches with them into the afterlife. And the truth is that all is
vain if we have not Christ. The only thing, the essential
thing, is to know our sins forgiven in the blood of the Lamb. If
we have that, then the power and riches of the world have
no allure to the child of God and to the little flock of Christ. If the Lord asks each one of
us Would you still follow me if all I promised you in this
world was hardship and suffering? Would you still follow? Would
heaven still beckon? Yes, a hundred times yes. There's no comparison between
the riches of this world and the inheritance laid up for us
in glory. Mark says in chapter 8 verse
36, For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole
world and lose his own soul? Such is the value of our soul. Jesus speaks about those who
would be ashamed of him and his word. Who is there? who can be
ashamed of Jesus and of his words. Who is capable of being ashamed
of Jesus and his words? Never man spake like this man. Our Lord Jesus Christ was the
bravest, the kindest, the wisest, the most patient, the strongest,
the best. and faithful friend a person
could ever have. How could we be ashamed of him?
No one can compare to Jesus. How is it possible for us to
be ashamed of him? And yet how easy it is for us
to compromise when we should stand fast. How easy to remain
silent when we should speak out or to step back when we should
step forward. May the Lord forgive us when
we doubt and fear. May he forgive us when fleshy
passions overwhelm us and we fail to be the people that we
wish we were. But there are others too who
are ashamed of Christ and his gospel. All who try to please
God outside of Christ and seek another way than the true way
are effectively ashamed of Jesus Christ crucified. All who are
careless of their soul's eternal state are ashamed of Christ. All who reject and repudiate
the work of Jesus Christ on the cross and all who cry with the
Jews, we will not have this man to reign over us, they are ashamed
of Christ. And there are those who see the
Lord in scripture but preach a different Christ, who hear
Christ's words in the gospel but preach another gospel. And
I fear that the great majority of religion in our day, though
it identifies with the Bible to an extent, is ashamed of the
Jesus of the Bible and is ashamed of his words in the gospel. May
the Lord strengthen and embolden us that we should never succumb
to this cowering spirit, but remain firm in the truth and
stand fast in the free grace and mercy of God. For the Lord
Jesus Christ is all that we need and all that we have. Just to
finish, I came across this little hymn and I thought it would be
good to recite it to you. Jesus, and shall it ever be a
mortal man ashamed of thee? Ashamed of thee whom angels praise,
whose glories shine to endless days? Ashamed of Jesus, sooner
far let evening blush to own a star. He sheds his beams of
light divine o'er this benighted soul of mine. Ashamed of Jesus,
just as soon let midnight be ashamed of noon. Tis midnight
with my soul, till he, bright morning star, bids darkness flee. Ashamed of Jesus, that dear friend,
On whom my hopes of heaven depend. No, when I blush, be this my
shame, That I no more revere his name. Ashamed of Jesus, yes
I may, When I've no guilt to wash away, No tear to wipe, no
good to crave, No fears to quell, no soul to save. Till then, nor
is my boasting vain, Till then I boast a Saviour slain, And
O may this my glory be, That Christ is not ashamed of me.
Amen.