9-19-21 Grace-Tucson Sermon

Mark 8:27-35 [Pentecost 17]

Pastor Ron Koehler

Grace-Tucson, AZ

September 19, 2021

Dear Friends in Christ, “Okay, I’d like you to sign up to join my club. It’s going to be awesome! There are a few things to know. First, in my club, you can’t do the things you want to do. Second, there are going to be some bad things—you’re going to feel like a loser and lots of people aren’t going to like you because you’re part of this club. Finally, I want you to do everything I ask of you without fail.” Great recruitment speech, huh? You and everyone else would be lining up for that!

Essentially, that’s what Jesus told a crowd of people that included his disciples. There are differences, however—big differences. Jesus is God, not just someone gathering a group of people.

And the Holy Spirit operates in people’s hearts in a way that an earthly scenario like that does not include. Nonetheless, the lesson before us today finds Jesus saying some difficult things, even as he impresses upon us how important those things are! The Denial, Cross, and Following of Christ and the Christian are what we’ll consider as we examine the words of Jesus today.

What it meant to be the Christ

Deny Self While we must—and we will—consider what we are to do as Christ’s followers, we really need to begin with what Jesus has done. We’ll see that he asks of us things that are similar to what he did.

Christ means “anointed one,” the one chosen by God to be the Savior. In order for Jesus to do that, he had to deny himself. We sometimes talk about Jesus’ humiliation, his making himself less in order to save us. That began with his conception and birth—God taking on human flesh. He came to live as one of us. This is how it is explained in Philippians: Though he was by nature God, he did not consider equality with God as a prize to be displayed, but he emptied himself by taking the nature of a servant…he was born in human likeness, and his appearance was like that of any other man (2:6-7).

As true God and true man then, he lived a selfless life for others—perfection for those who were imperfect, flawlessness for the spiritually flawed. He did what only he could do for those who could do nothing to improve their standing before God either in this life or after death. Instead of remaining in heaven, he selflessly gave that up for us and he lived perfectly for us.

It seemed that Peter and the others understood this. Peter declared what the disciples knew, “You are the Christ.” They didn’t understand all the implications, but they did know that the Father had anointed Jesus to be the Savior. That put them well out in front of the rest who recognized that Jesus was special, but who did not know that he was the Savior. John the Baptist, Elijah, maybe another prophet—those were their best guesses.

The disciples saw Jesus live in a selfless way. They saw that he had no earthly possessions to speak of, no home. They saw him give and give for people—teaching, preaching, healing anyone who asked. They didn’t see him demand his rights, but did see him submit to the authorities over him while in this world. In all of these things, Jesus put himself last and others first. This was a denial of self because as true God, he did not have to do that. What it meant to be the Christ, however, required this self-denial.

Take up the Cross When we think of Jesus taking up his cross, we’re not simply thinking of all the difficult things that Jesus had to endure while in this life, as you know. We primarily think of THE cross, the cross that Peter (and probably the others) did not want him to go to.

What Jesus told them at this time was a pretty straightforward teaching that they had heard from him before. Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things; be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the experts in the law; be killed; and after three days rise again. He was speaking plainly to them.

This is the very heart of what it meant to be the Christ, but they still hadn’t entirely caught on.

Suffering was Jesus’ cross to bear, but there was more—an actual cross where he would not only suffer cruel pain, but the Father’s disgust and rejection also—because he had your sins draped over him. And then he died. He was willing to bear that suffering and take up that cross and die that death because of his love for you. It was the only way for your sin to be paid for, so he denied himself for you, and he took up his cross for you.

Follow That denying and cross-carrying were his Father’s plan. Jesus agreed to that plan and submitted himself to it. It wasn’t just love for sinners that moved him, it was love for his Father. It was a death he knew was coming because it is what he came for. It was a death that his Father demanded to save sinners. Jesus agreed to follow that plan. He once explained it this way: But I want the world to know that I love the Father and that I am doing exactly what the Father has instructed me (John 14:31).

Jesus followed his Father’s plan. Had he wanted to follow his own plan, he might have listened to Peter and avoided the most severe suffering that was soon coming his way—and the torturous death too. Following his human nature would have meant not praying to his Father in the garden, “Not my will, but yours be done.” It would have meant diverging from the Father’s path and setting out on one of his own. Satan would have loved that! Satan was already trying to tempt Jesus in that direction as he worked through Peter and probably the others, since Jesus looked right at them, and then said to Peter: “Get behind me, Satan! You do not have your mind set on the things of God, but the things of men.”

The things of men would mean compromising to win the approval of those religious leaders, avoiding suffering, and avoiding certain death. Following the path of temptation would have meant eternal death for all. That was not the Father’s path and it wasn’t Jesus’ path either. How thankful we can be that Jesus did deny himself, that he did take up his cross, that he did follow his Father’s plan!

Forgiveness and salvation are ours because of that!

What it means to be a Christian Let’s be clear that you and I are saved by what Christ has done. It was his self-denial, his cross, his following the Father’s plan for salvation that brought forgiveness for all. The Holy Spirit—through baptism and the Word—gave us faith to trust in Christ and all he did for our forgiveness and salvation.

What it means to be a Christian is that we trust in Christ as our Savior. It also means that we do what Christ commands. Though we see how Christ denied self, and bore his cross, and followed his Father, these words before us today are for you and me, so that we see what it means to be a Christian. Like Christ, his people deny self, take up their cross, and follow him. They do this out of thankfulness for those very things he did to save us.

Deny Self A Christian does not, first and foremost, live for himself or herself. A Christian lives and sacrifices for Christ. That is what denial of self means. This means that we put what Christ wants before what we want. We listen to his expectations instead of our wishes. We actually change our way of thinking so that it conforms to God’s will. The Apostle Paul talked like this: We tear down thoughts such as all arrogance that rises up against the knowledge of God, and we make every thought captive so that it is obedient to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:4b-5).

Isn’t it arrogance to put our thinking ahead of God’s? Aren’t we to change our thinking so that our thinking agrees with Christ? Listen to that passage again, because it really does capture what Jesus says here about denying self. We tear down thoughts such as all arrogance that rises up against the knowledge of God, and we make every thought captive so that it is obedient to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:4b-5).

Wouldn’t that be great if we could truly do that?! As we sit here and listen to Jesus say that we must deny ourselves and live for him, we want to do that. He did that for us; we want to do that for him. It all sounds so great as we hear it from a church pew. And it sounds simple: Do what Jesus wants you to do so you can thank him. But we know it is not simple, and it does not sound great to us outside of these walls (and admittedly, sometimes even within these walls).

For example, it’s hard to forgive others. It’s hard to think that our bodies are not our own so we can’t do whatever we want with them, but they belong to God who created us and Jesus who saved them from eternal fire and the Spirit who lives within them. It’s hard to carve time out to hear God’s Word when it means cutting into sleep time or struggling to get the kids motivated and out the door or giving up the morning walk or bike ride. It’s hard to go against the flow of “everyone else” when it comes to the language we use and the lifestyle that we live. It’s hard to use my time not for myself but for helping to keep God’s house looking good, or assisting with worship, or serving at a church event. It’s hard to give joyful, generous, regular offerings to God when what I really want is to keep more and more for me.

It’s all so hard because our sinful nature is still clinging to us and it wants ONLY to live for self and to deny Christ instead! Oh, how thankful we can be that Jesus was not like this. In him we find forgiveness for all of that. His perfect life of self-denial saves us from an eternity of pain and separation from God. The love and forgiveness of Jesus that we find when we go to him in repentance is what moves us to fix those wrongs and get our thinking right, so that the actions which follow are Christ-like.

Take up the Cross The cross for Jesus was the suffering and the death he took up for you and me. The cross that Christians take up is the suffering we experience for the sake of Jesus. Everyone’s crosses are different, too, aren’t they?

I hear that there are families out there who are all Christians—the parents, the siblings, the cousins.

What a blessing! That’s not my family though, and it might not be yours. In our families, there is then sometimes suffering for the sake of Christ. We get treated differently because we are Christians. We get talked about differently. There is a certain distance instead of closeness. A cross taken up for Christ.

We find ourselves in a difficult marriage. It isn’t broken by unfaithfulness or desertion, but it isn’t everything we want it to be either. Others would have bailed on it long ago, disregarding what Jesus says about marriage and chasing after happiness elsewhere. But we hang in there, trying to live as a Christian spouse as God expects. We bear that cross for the sake of Christ.

Having God’s view on abortion instead of our godless society’s view—and the treatment we receive because of it—a cross to bear for Christ. Being treated differently at school, looked down upon at work—just because we are Christians: more of the same.

Peter didn’t want Jesus to take up his cross, but we know that he later understood why it was vital for him to do so—and he relied on the forgiveness it brought him. We don’t want to take up our crosses, because it hurts, its upsetting, it makes us different than so many others and that doesn’t feel good.

The Christian knows, however, that they are thinking these things and doing them for Jesus in thanks for the cross he bore for them.

Follow Denial of self and taking up our crosses are the things which show that we are following Jesus. Jesus calls us to do all of these in what we might consider the worst recruitment speech ever! He was speaking to some who were already his disciples. This was encouragement and direction for them to continue following him on the path to eternal life. For those in the crowd who were considering Jesus, it laid out what it means to be a disciple of his. Denying self, bearing crosses, and following in his way are marks of the Christian.

You may have picked up that these are not optional, but necessary. Just like Jesus said that he “must” suffer and die, so the Christian must do something—not to earn salvation, but because it shows that there is actual faith in Jesus. IF we want to follow Jesus, THEN these things are done, Jesus says. You may have also noticed that this is eternally critical: For whoever wants to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.

Deny ourselves, take up our crosses, follow Christ…these are difficult things, aren’t they? It does not come natural to us. We actually naturally fight against it. We are blessed because Christ perfectly denied himself, took up his cross, and followed his Father’s plan. We find forgiveness for our failures in him and we find help from the Holy Spirit to put us back on track so that we live a Christian life in thanks to Jesus. Amen.

Now the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

27 Jesus

went away with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” 28 They told him, “John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others say one of the prophets.” 29 “But who do you say I am?” he asked them.

Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.” 30 Then he warned them not to tell anyone about him. 31 Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things; be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the experts in the law; be killed; and after three days rise again. 32 He was speaking plainly to them. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But after turning around and looking at his disciples, Jesus rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! You do not have your mind set on the things of God, but the things of men.” 34 He called the crowd and his disciples together and said to them, “If anyone wants to follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.