TRUE DISCIPLESHIP (Mark 8:24-38)
INTRODUCTION:
In one breath Peter had declared the Lord Jesus to be the Messiah and the Son of God and in the next breath he rebuked Him for declaring that He must suffer and be killed and then rise again. This is the backdrop to this morning’s passage. Jesus had predicted His death and resurrection and in the last few verses of this chapter we have a short message of Jesus that outlines the cost of true discipleship. This message is also found in the parallel passages in Matthew 16:24-28 and Luke 9:23-27 and all three passages reveal the consistent teaching of Jesus on the character of saving faith and the cost of true discipleship. The gospel message of Jesus in this passage taught that true discipleship called for total submission and an unreserved commitment to the Lord Jesus. The passage begins with an invitation to become a true disciple of Jesus, laying out what that requires, second Jesus gives the paradox of true discipleship, and finally the eternal consequences of those who do not respond to His invitation. Let’s pray and then get into our passage of Scripture.
--PRAY--
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles to Mark 8:34-38, we will finish up this chapter this morning. Please, if you are able, stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word and follow along as I read.
Mark 8:34-38,
“And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.’ ” (Mark 8:34–38, NASB95)[1]
THE INVITATION (Mark 8:34)
The declaration by Peter that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God was an exciting moment of revelation and conviction for the disciples. But that excitement and joy which they had in that moment was quickly overshadowed by Jesus’ announcement that He must suffer and die. The disciples struggled with this news of a suffering Messiah, which was clearly seen in Peter’s reaction. As Jesus rebuked Peter, He reminded him and the other disciples that they were setting their minds on man’s interests, clearly thinking about the glory and blessing they themselves would receive in the messianic kingdom. What they had failed to do was to set their minds on God’s interests and understand that God’s plan of redemption required a sacrifice for sin, and that sacrifice had to be a sinless sacrifice, and the Messiah, the incarnate Son of God was the only One who met that requirement, and for this reason Jesus had come into the world.
Remember all this took place as they were on their way to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. As they arrived a crowd began to gather, and we are told by Mark that Jesus summoned the crowd with His disciples, and they gathered around Him. Jesus began to tell them that anyone who wished to follow Him as a disciple would experience suffering and persecution. This truth affirmed the reality of the apostles’ faith. They had already experienced the cost of leaving families, homes, occupations all behind to follow the Lord Jesus. Jesus words, “If anyone wishes to come after me…” was an open invitation to those in the crowd to place their faith in Him and join His disciples. Jesus made it clear that to do so would cost them everything. Jesus made very clear that true saving faith and true discipleship is characterized by self-denial, cross-bearing, and submissive obedience. None of these bring about saving faith, but this is the outcome of saving faith of the one who truly desires to be a disciple of Jesus. Let’s look at each of these separately.
Jesus stated that the person who wanted to follow Christ first must deny himself. The Greek verb translated “deny” is a strong word and it means, “to have no association with” or “to disown completely.” When Jesus stated that a person must deny himself, He was making the point that the person who desires to follow Christ as His disciple must be willing to disown himself and give up everything for the Lord’s sake. In other words, they must abandon both their self-righteousness and their sin, surrendering all of their desires, dreams, and plans to Jesus.
It is important to understand that essential to the reality of self-denial is the declaration that the sinner cannot get into heaven through his own self-righteousness or religious efforts. In other words, there is nothing within us that makes of worthy of heaven, this we must affirm in our self-denial. Those who were in the crowd that were still trapped in the legalism of the Pharisees and the scribes, this call by Jesus to self-denial was a command to let go and put behind you the apostate system of works-righteousness and the hypocrisy of the religious leaders. It is only when we recognize that we can bring nothing to make ourselves worthy to God, it is only in the Lord Jesus Christ and His righteousness that we are made righteous. Grace is not extended to those who think they are well, but to those who know they are sick. Jesus condemned the self-assured Pharisees as hypocrites, but to the self-confessed unworthy sinner who cried to God for mercy, that person went home justified. This is exactly what took place in the life of the apostle Paul when he met the Lord Jesus on the road to Damascus and put his faith in Him. Paul denounced all his “good works” as a Pharisee, calling them worthless. Listen to his words to the Philippian believers in Philippians 3:4-9, “…I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless. But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,” (Philippians 3:4–9, NASB95)[2] A sinner denies himself when he forsakes self-reliance and self-confidence, and depends solely on Christ’s power and mercy alone for forgiveness and salvation. This same self-denial which Jesus calls us to also requires repentance from sin and selfish ambition. To follow Jesus Christ as a true disciple we must do so on His terms, not our own. We must turn away from our sinful habits and break away completely from our former way of life turning fully to God. All that was formerly loved must be rejected being replaced by undivided love for the master and savior Jesus Christ. To be a true disciple means that Jesus Christ is not only our Savior, but we wholeheartedly submit to Him as our Lord. Understanding this, God’s desires, purposes and will become our desires, purposes and will as we seek to obey His Word and make His glory our highest ambition and goal in life.
Next, Jesus said that we must take up our cross, we must be cross-bearers to be true disciples of Jesus Christ. The cross in Jesus’ day did not have the sentiment that it carries today. No one would ever wear a gold one around their neck. For those living in Jesus’ day, a cross was universally understood as an instrument of execution, like the electric chair might be viewed in our day. The cross was designed to prolong the agony of death for as long as possible. As instruments of torture, shame, and execution, the cross was reserved for the worst criminal offenders, and enemies of the state. The Romans crucified their victims in public, along highways, as a gruesome reminder of what happened to those who defied Caesar’s imperial authority. Estimates suggest that as many as thirty thousand Jews were crucified during Jesus’ lifetime. When Jesus used cross-bearing to explain the cost of discipleship, the crowd knew precisely what He meant.
In calling true disciples to be cross-bearers, Jesus’ point was that those who desired to be His disciples, rather than seeking prosperity and ease, must be willing to endure persecution, rejection, hardship, and even martyrdom for His sake. Jesus wanted His disciples to know that to follow Him could mean a life of adversity and maltreatment. Jesus would later tell His disciples in John 15:18-21, “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me.” (John 15:18–21, NASB95)[3] Not every disciple of Jesus will die as a martyr, but the true disciple will love Christ so fully that even death is not too high a price for the eternal joy of being with Him. Paul told Timothy in 2nd Timothy 3:12, “Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” (2 Timothy 3:12, NASB95)[4] The phrase “take up his cross” is a metaphor for being willing to pay any price for the glorious gift of eternal life with Him that He gives. True conversion and true discipleship cause a person to view the Lord Jesus and the hope of heaven as so precious that no personal sacrifice is too much. Paul declared in 2nd Corinthians 4:17-18, “For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:17–18, NASB95)[5] There are some who at first profess Christ, but their unwillingness to suffer for His sake, show us that they are not truly His disciples. Jesus described these in the parable of the soils as the rocky soil on which some of the seed fell, the rocky soil represents those who when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy, but they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away. In contrast, those who endure trials and hardship for the honor of Christ prove the genuineness of their faith.
The third characteristic of true discipleship is loyal obedience. Jesus said, follow me which indicates loyal and continual obedience to Him. The Greek word translated “follow” is the same word that Jesus uses in John 10:27 where He is describing His followers as a flock of sheep. He says, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;” (John 10:27, NASB95)[6] Like sheep submitting to the voice of their shepherd, true disciples of Jesus Christ are characterized by loving obedience to Him and His Word. On the night that Jesus was arrested, as He ate the Passover with His disciples, He reminded them in John 14:15, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” (John 14:15, NASB95)[7] A few verses down in John 14:23 He stated, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.” (John 14:23b, NASB95)[8] Then in the next chapter, in John 15:14 He declared, “You are My friends if you do what I command you.” (John 15:14, NASB95)[9] These verses make clear that Jesus considered a life of obedience as a nonnegotiable reality of true discipleship.
It is important to note, as I did at the beginning, that self-denial, cross-bearing, and obedience are not works that we do to somehow earn salvation. Nor do they make up a list of sequential steps that must be followed to be saved from sin. Instead, these are essential characteristics of repentant faith and new birth, which is a gift of God imparted by the Holy Spirit at the moment of salvation. Those whom God saves He transforms giving them a new heart, so that out of their love for the Lord Jesus, they eagerly deny themselves, endure suffering, and submitting obediently to their Lord and Master and to His Word.
THE PARADOX (Mark 8:35-37)
Jesus used a paradox to further distinguish the nature of true discipleship. Jesus declared, “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.” (Mark 8:35, NASB95)[10] In other words, those who are unwilling to surrender their lives to the Lord Jesus, but choose instead to hold onto their sin, onto their selfish ambition, and an acceptance by the world, will one day lose their souls to everlasting death. But those willing to give up everything for the sake of Christ will receive eternal life. Jesus qualifies what He is saying, He is not saying that every form of self-sacrifice has spiritual or eternal value, the only self-sacrifice that has eternal or spiritual value is that which is done for the sake of Christ and for the sake of the gospel. Like the parable of the man who found the treasure in the field and sold everything and then bought the field or the parable of the merchant seeking fine pearls and finding one pearl of great value sold all that he had and bought that one pearl. In this same way that someone might sell all he owns to gain something of far greater value, true disciples are eager to give us everything to gain Christ and the salvation He alone provides.
The Lord went on by posing two rhetorical questions: “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mark 8:36–37, NASB95)[11] To obtain all that the world has to offer, riches, prestige, power, and respect and yet die apart from Christ is to be eternally destitute. The reason is because this world and all that is in it is passing away, and when the end of your life comes all that you obtained cannot go with you. But each person’s soul will live forever. For those who fully understand this truth, it is incredible to think that anyone would forfeit eternity in heaven for a few fleeting decades of self-indulgence in this life. Sadly, this is what most people do. In this we see the power of human sinfulness. Who can put a price on a human soul, it is priceless, yet we are willing to exchange it for the pleasure of sin for a season. But those who truly understand the pricelessness of their soul and give up everything the world has to offer to follow the Lord Jesus will gain eternal riches and eternal life.
THE JUDGMENT (Mark 8:28)
Jesus ends this message by speaking of the judgment that is coming upon those who refuse His invitation to come after Him. The purpose for the first coming of Jesus Christ was to suffer and die as the only sacrifice for sin that was acceptable to God, that paid the full penalty for sin. But as He reminded those who were in the crowd that day, that a future day is coming when He will return as sole sovereign King in triumph and judgment. Jesus Christ will be the Judge of all the earth and as such will be and is the determiner of each person’s eternal destiny. Those who reject Christ in this life, being ashamed of Him and His words, will be rejected by Him at the judgment. In this context, ashamed means to despise, reject, or refuse to accept. The only people who will be saved are those who are ashamed of themselves but not ashamed of Christ.
Each and every sinner should be utterly ashamed of their own wicked thoughts, words, and actions. They should be ashamed of their self-righteous pride and hypocrisy. These are the very things that the gospel calls us to deny. True believers are characterized by brokenness, humility, and a sorrow that leads to repentance. By contrast, unbelievers are ashamed, not of themselves, but of Christ. They love their sin; they prize the approval of this world and are unwilling to embrace the suffering that comes by following Christ. They believe they can gain heaven by a righteousness of their own making, so they see no need for the gospel, the message of the cross is to them offensive and foolish. Jesus called the nation of Israel and His own people who were rejecting Him an adulterous and sinful generation. By using this description, the Lord Jesus was not referring to literal adultery, but spiritual unfaithfulness. First century Judaism had replaced true religion with dead traditions and legalism. True, the nation no longer worshiped the idols of the nations around them, but the religion of the Pharisees had created one great idol out off the rabbinic system of ceremonies, traditions, and external self-righteousness. Anyone ashamed of Christ in this life, like the apostate leaders of Israel were, Jesus said that the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels. Jesus was informing His audience that one day in fulfillment to prophecy, He will return as King and Judge. He will return to earth in glory to establish His reign over the whole earth. The rugged cross will be replaced by a royal throne. Jesus says on that day He will reject and refuse to accept those who rejected Him. The Lord Jesus will destroy His enemies, and they will be cast into eternal hell.
CONCLUSION:
For true disciples the return of Christ is our blessed hope, a comforting promise that we eagerly wait to see fulfilled. While we wait for Christ to return, we are not ashamed of Jesus Christ or His words. As true disciples, having repented of our sin and self-effort, having embraced the Lord Jesus in faith, we rest confident in the knowledge that we are forgiven and redeemed. The wonderful truth is that our Savior is not ashamed of us either. As the book of Hebrews teaches concerning those who are the redeemed, it says, Jesus “is not ashamed to call them brethren.” (Hebrews 2:11b, NASB95)[12] And “God is not ashamed to be called their God.” (Hebrews 11:16b, NASB95)[13]
For those who reject Jesus Christ, the certainty of final judgment is a terrifying reality. As Hebrews also declares, “And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment.” (Hebrews 9:27, NASB95)[14] On that day of judgment those who refused to abandon their sin or those who trusted in their self-righteous efforts will be irreversibly and eternally condemned to hell. But those who accepted the invitation of the gospel, and came to the Lord Jesus in humble, repentant faith—will not be put to shame, will not be condemned. Having given up this world for the sake of Christ, they will live forever in the world to come. The book of Revelation describes for us the new heavens and the new earth that are to come where we live forever with our Savior and Lord. Of these the Lord Jesus says, “He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be His God and he will be my son.” (Revelation 21:7, NASB95)[15]
[1]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[2]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation. (Emphasis mine)
[3]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[4]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[5]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[6]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[7]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[8]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[9]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[10]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[11]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[12]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[13]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[14]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[15]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.