Trinity Baptist Church

The Book of Mark

Losing Your Life to Save It

Mark 8:34-38

 

If I was told I could only preach on one text from Mark 8, I would choose the section before us tonight.  I say that because here we find an invitation to sinners to be saved.  It is an invitation to come to Jesus for forgiveness and blessing and peace and joy and eternal life. ANd more important that any miracle or meal the Lord prepared, the most important thing He ever did was give an invitation to lost people to be saved. 

 

Those of us who have been in the church for any length of time are used to invitations. Maybe we’ve become too accustomed to them.  You should have my perspective during invitation time sometime and watch as people are getting their things ready to leave.  It’s as if the invitation has no connection to them at all.  IT’s for someone else. 

 

And maybe some of the fault lies with us as preachers and the way we present the invitation.  We give them so often, maybe we come with very little expectation of what should happen during that time as well. 

 

That is especially true when I consider the pattern of our Lord’s invitation here in our text because here we find the model for all invitations and one that is very seldom followed.

 

 

 

And not only do preachers need to understand this invitation, but all believers do because we are all responsible for going out to share the gospel and extend an invitation.  So you need to get hold of this text as well as I.  Listen to our Lord’s words starting in

 

verses 34-38

 

This same account is found in Matthew 16 and Luke 9 and in all three accounts the wording is very similar.  I would say that is a suggestion that this is the way Jesus generally extended an invitation. 

 

And to be honest, it doesn’t sound much like any invitation you’ve ever heard or I’ve ever extended in a church. This is not an invitation to health, or wealth, or fulfillment, or prosperity, or healing, or your best life now.   This is an invitation to self-denial, cross bearing and obedience. But this is the Lord’s invitation and this is the one that we must give if we would be faithful and if we would be honest with people.

 

Just in case you think this might be a little bit isolated, I would remind you this was the usual and customary when Jesus talked about the cost of following Him. And He presents the principle in the form of a paradox, then adds a word about punishment.  So we’ll just use that for our outline. 

 

 

verse 34

 

 

Now the moment at which this statement is made is extremely important.  Peter has spoken for the others and made this God-given profession that Jesus is the Christ.  Messiah is on the scene and all doubts are gone.   

 

And in their mind, that meant happy days are here again as Messiah takes the throne and sets right everything that has been wrong and they are in on the ground floor.  Soon they’ll be eating cream puffs and sitting on thrones.

 

But Jesus bursts that bubble as He tells them about His impending death and resurrection.  And then things really twist off when Peter tries to interfere and Jesus calls him Satan!  That means their vision of the Kingdom of God was actually satanic. 

 

They were so close!  They could almost taste and smell and see the Kingdom.  They had no room in their dreams for a cross.  But Jesus reminds them there had to be a cross before there would be a crown, there had to be pain before there would be gain, there had to be suffering before there would be glory.

 

And so, Jesus says, “I’m going to die.” And then He presents the invitation.  “If anyone wishes to come after Me, there’s a cross for them also.”

 

Actually the invitation to follow Christ has three stipulation.  The first one is 

 

-  self-denial

 

If anyone wants to come after Me, you must deny yourself.

Now right off the bat, we see the invitation is wide open.  Anyone can come who meets the requirements.  It is an open invitation.  But that person must deny self. 

 

So what does that mean?  What does it mean to deny yourself?  It is a very strong expression in the original Greek that means to disown or refuse to associate with or companion with someone.

 

TO follow Christ is to say, “I no longer want to associate with the person that I am. I realize my sinfulness. I realize I cannot earn this. I abandon my self-effort. I abandon the works system of approaching God.  I deny that you can earn your way to heaven and become good enough for God to accept you. I turn my back on everything that has anything to do with me including my ambitions, my agenda and my plans.  

 

To come to Christ is to depend on Him and what He provides and you take hands off of your own life and bring yourself under His control and confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus.  You say, “You are the Lord of my life. You’re in charge of my life, Your will, Your desires, Your plans, Your purposes, that’s what I want in my life.”

 

Think about the testimony of the Apostle Paul in Philippians 3. He says, “If you want religious credentials, I’ll be glad to throw down with you.”  HE says,  “I was circumcised the eighth day of the nation Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin,  a Hebrew of Hebrews.” That means he was a traditional Jew in every sense. “As to the Law, a Pharisee, the most passionate observer of the Law.

As to zeal for Judaism, a persecutor of the church, as for righteousness which is in the Law, blameless, I even toed the line on the Law.”

 

But he says, “I thought it was all gain until I saw Christ and realized it was nothing more than a pile of garbage.  And I threw it all away and counted it but loss so I could know Christ.”

 

That’s self-denial. Nothing I have done or could ever do is worthy of forgiveness. I abandon all self-effort and with that I acknowledge Christ as Lord and I turn my life over to Him. His ambition becomes mine. His will becomes mine. His purpose becomes mine.”

 

So if you want to come to Christ, you must start with self-denial.

 

The second stipulation is

 

 

, verse 34

 

What does it mean to take up your cross? Even though Jesus had not yet told the disciples He would be crucified, when He mentioned taking up their cross, they knew what He was talking about death by crucifixion.

 

Thirty thousand Jews were crucified by the Romans and others in that land around that period of our Lord’s life. They were very accustomed to seeing crucifixions because the Romans carried out their executions along the highways for everybody to see. It was a very familiar sight.

In fact, history records, even before the time of Christ, where the enemies of Israel crucified Jews.  On one occasion, eight hundred and on another, two thousand Jews at one time were crucified. They knew exactly what it meant when Jesus said you have to take up your cross.  They’d seen criminals dragging their crosses through the streets too many times not to know what He was talking about.

 

Jesus was telling them, “If you want to follow Me, it’s going to cost you something.  I’m headed toward death. And frankly, so are you.”  And in so many words, He’s asking them how they value salvation.  Is it worth enough to you that you would give up everything, including your life. The cross here is kind of a metaphor for suffering. Obviously not every believer who comes to Christ will die, but they’re be some suffering and rejection and humiliation and ridicule. 

 

We’ve been very protected here in America for a long time, but there is now a serious hostility toward those who are faithful, godly Christians.  And we shouldn’t be surprised.  Jesus said, “If you come to Me, you will endure persecution.”

 

That was certainly true for those listening that day.  Eleven of the Twelve died for the Faith.  Paul said, “I die daily. Every day in my life I face death for the cause of the gospel.”

 

They knew exactly what He was saying. This is going to cost you everything. This is not yet going to be glory. This is not yet going to be the Kingdom. This is not going to be wealth and prosperity which will come one day in the glorious Kingdom of Christ. For now, this is about suffering.

So the principle includes first of all, saying no to self.  Second, saying not to safety and third, saying yes to the Savior.  Let’s call it

 

 

Jesus said, “follow Me”.

 

Greek scholars say the word used here implies a continuing action.  Literally, it would read, “let him be following Me”.  To be a Christian means you deny yourself, take up your cross and you continual follow Jesus. 

 

So what does it mean to continually follow Jesus?  Well the word carries the idea of imitation.  To follow Christ is to imitate Christ.  If you say you are a Christ-follower, then you ought to walk and live the way He did. 

 

Here, in particular, it you want to be like Christ, then understand that Jesus denied Himself and took up His cross.  His followers will do the same.  Our lives as His disciples are marked by obedience. We obey the Word of God. We obey it with joy. We obey it with love. We obey it with gratitude. We obey it gladly.

 

That’s the principle and it’s pretty simple when you think about it.  If you’re going to go on a trip, the first thing you do is say good bye. The second thing you do is carry your baggage. Third thing you do is proceed on your journey. That’s all He’s saying. Say goodbye to self, pick up your cross, and get on the road.   That’s the principle.  Next comes

 

 

 

verse 35

 

If you want to hang on to your physical life and retain control of it and cherish your sin, you can do that, but there are spiritual and eternal consequences.  You can save your life temporarily and you will lose it eternally. That’s hell.

 

But there is another way to live and if you choose to live for the sake of the gospel, for the cause of Christ then you’ll know what life is really all about. 

 

The time and energy and resources that are spent on human causes is amazing.  At the same time it’s rather sad to consider. 

 

You can die rescuing people out of evils of oppression around the world and that will not talk you to heaven. It’s a noble act. You can die feeding the masses of starving people in India, but it will not take you to heaven. You can die working with AIDS patients by contracting AIDS yourself and die in a noble effort to help folks. That will not take you to heaven.

 

It is only when you lose your life, give it up, yield it up for Christ and the gospel that you save it. Such willingness, such humble self-sacrificing willingness comes because you understand the desperation of your condition and you understand the massive glory of the gift of salvation.

 

So, verse 36, a question is posed. What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? Did he make a good deal? Was that a good bargain? Was that a savvy financial decision? I’ll tell you what I’m going to do, I’m going to live life any way I want here so I can spend forever in hell and forfeit heaven. Does that make sense? What good did it do?

 

Remember the man Jesus told about who kept building bigger and bigger warehouses to hold his stuff?  He finally got to the point in life where he wanted to relax and enjoy everything he had and suddenly died. 

 

So if you choose to live your life like that you must answer the question. What are you going to profit if you gain the whole world and lose your own soul? 

 

It is the common belief of man that he is the happiest when he has the most stuff.  But that is a delusion. 

 

verse 37

 

Your soul is worth more than everything in this world because this world will burn up. You will live forever. There is no price for your soul except the provision of Jesus Christ on the cross. He paid an infinite price because of an infinite value attached to you. That’s the gift of salvation.

 

So we have the principle.  Take up your cross, deny yourself and follow Jesus.  We see the paradox, it’s winning by losing.  Lastly, notice

 

 

verse 38

 

 

Now the implication is there is a coming judgment.  So this invitation contains a warning.  It’s a hard invitation.  It requires total abandonment. It talks about self-denial, cross bearing, loyal obedience and giving up your life to save it. 

 

And if you choose not to do it because you want to hang on to your own life and you’re ashamed of Christ, and ashamed to identify with His words and teaching, then the Son of Man will be ashamed of you when He comes at His Second Coming in the glory of His Father with the holy angels and you will take your place with the Christ-rejecting, perishing world to face divine judgment. When Christ comes, He comes to judge the world. That’s what it says.

 

Well, that’s the invitation. I’m not sure those guys that day were ready to hear this and I sure don’t think the world today wants to hear it either. 

 

They don’t want to hear about the crucifixion of Christ.  They don’t want to hear they’re going to die. They don’t want to hear that there’s going to be judgment.

 

But this message is the message of salvation and this invitation is the opportunity to live. May God help us be faithful to extend it to a lost and dying world. 

 

Let’s pray.