Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done. “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” Matthew 16:24-28
Life or Death
Yesterday Pastor Jim began a new series titled Move: Growing Toward a Fully Formed Life. The key truth is Movement is the catalyst for growth. Therefore, there can be no spiritual growth without spiritual movement.Movement equals life and without movement we die. Our muscles break down and our bodies don’t work the same.
As much as life is about movement, being a Christian is all about movement as well. It begins with movement away from sin and towards Christ. If we want to grow spiritually, we have to keep moving. If we stop moving, we will stop growing. We begin in movement towards Christ after repentance and keep moving towards our target – Jesus. When we are walking the Jesus way, learning to live and love like Jesus and stepping where the Spirit steps, we will be growing towards the place Jesus wants us to be.
To grow and to be on the path Jesus has for us, there are three things Jesus tells us we must do. As a crowd and the disciples gather around, Jesus asks a question that is so profound. He asked For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? I feel like we spend a great deal of time and energy trying to profit from this world. We spend our lives searching for something to fill the void when Jesus is the only thing that fills that space. Not only is Jesus the only thing that fills the void, but we can lose our soul in the process. Satan lures us with the world. We imagine the lies he tells to be true, but we quickly find out they are empty, and you cannot fill emptiness with emptiness. There are some who would rather have all the world offers than to deny themselves at all and have all Jesus offers. Sadly, one day they will find out that it was not worth it to gain the whole world and forfeit their soul. Before Jesus asks this question, He says three things that one must do if they want to be a true Christ follower:
Deny themselves… Denying ourselves does include denying ourselves of some things or privileges, but that is not all it means. It means dying to ourselves. The cross meant death, it was how they executed people. A person carrying his cross could not save himself. We cannot save ourselves either as we are dead in our sins. Sin is a death sentence without the shed blood of Jesus to was us clean and wipe away our sin. Because of His sacrifice, we can have hope. We have remission of sins and eternal life, and that eternal life is the hope we need to cling to.
Take up their cross… The cross was a symbol of death - a brutal and terrible death. Taking up our cross means dying to ourselves, a death that brings eternal abundant life. Taking up our cross means redemption and resurrection in him.
And follow me. Following Jesus is growing in a relationship with him. This is where the movement happens in our walk with Jesus. This is where we grow towards him, in relationship with him.
What does spiritual movement look like and how do we begin the process?
Spiritual movement begins when we put our own desires and wants aside, take up our cross, and follow him – learning to live and love like him. It is not a one-time event but rather one that we have to do daily. When we daily surrender, deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow him we will be on the path of abundant life.
