What Is A Man Profited If He Gains The Whole World And Loses Himself?

So this morning, I want to begin by talking a little bit about truth and where truth comes from. If you've been watching the news, I don't know how you could avoid all of this talk about fake news. Are you guys at least aware of this concept that there's real news and there's fake news? And that people disagree about what real news is and what's real and what's fake? The thing that's going on is there's... There are two agendas or more being promoted, and they're arguing about what's true. And I want you to see that you live in a world that's forever saying, this is true. Here's something that's true. Do this because this other thing is true. And so it means to live in this world, you're forever being inundated with truth claims.

And you need to know that they come at you and they're sophisticated. They don't say, this is true, therefore do it. But I want you to know that we act, that everyone acts, Christian or not, they act based on what they believe to be true. If you want to know what a person believes to be true, look at how they spend their time and their money. And you'll know what they think is true. And I want you to see that as we come to our text this morning, that God also claims to... promote, to speak truth to us. And as Christians, it's our responsibility to not put God's truth down on the same playing field as everything else. God's truth is above anything else that flows from it. Another way of saying it is anything that is true in this world is built on the foundation of God's truth. And it's not true because we can prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt.

It's not true because the majority of people say it's true. It's true because God says it's true and he is truth. And so as we come to our text this morning, I want you to see that you live in this place where truth is up for grabs or you're led to think it is. And I don't want you believing that that's the case. I want you to stand on the truth of God's word. I want you not to be ashamed of the truth of God's word. And I want you to speak the truth of his word and live the truth of his word in every area of your life. Would you please stand for the reading of God's word? From Luke chapter 9, verses 23 through 27. And he was saying to them all, this is Jesus. And he was saying to them all, if anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it.

But whoever loses his life for my sake, he is the one who will save it. For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. But I say to you truthfully, there are some of those standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. Hey, John, can you get me some water? Thank you. So to start out, I want you to have a little context to what precedes this passage. What precedes this passage is Jesus having fed the 5,000 and then having taken his disciples away and prayed with them and instructed them. And one of the things that he did with them while they were alone is he asked them, and we studied this last week, he asked them,

who do people say that I am? And they say, John the Baptist, Elijah, one of the prophets of old. And he says, well enough. Who do you say that I am? And Peter stands up and he says, you're the Christ of God. And Peter's speaking on behalf of the disciples as a whole. These men knew who Jesus Christ truly was. And Jesus goes on to tell them, you didn't learn this by what your eyes see. My father revealed this to you. He said, flesh and blood did not reveal this to you. But my father in heaven. And then he goes on to tell them that he has to suffer and die. And at that point, thank you, John. And at that point, Peter takes him aside and Peter says, may it never be. You will not die. I won't allow it. And Jesus rebukes him. Get behind me, Satan. You have your mind fixed on man's interests and not on God's. And so Peter takes.

The Christ that he's just acknowledged to be the anointed one, the Messiah, the one who was to come, the son of God. He's confessed that's who you are. Then he immediately takes him aside and says, no, what you just said is not going to happen. And he rebukes Jesus or tries to. And Jesus turns around and rebukes Peter and says, no, you're wrong. And then he continues this discourse. And so I want you to see that the themes of Jesus' death that existed in last week's text carry on through into this text. Jesus said, immediately preceding this in verse 22, that he had to suffer and he had to die. And then he moves into verse 23 and he starts to talk about their work, the disciples' work. And he says, I'm going to die. I have to suffer and I have to die. Now, if any one of you wishes to come after me, you must deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me. Now our children could understand what Jesus is saying to them. He's saying, I'm going to suffer, I'm going to die.

And if you're to be my disciple, you have to follow after me. You can't be my disciple and not do what I do. And so I want to look at the two main elements that Jesus tells them that they must do. The first thing he says is, if you desire to come, wish to come after me, you must deny yourself. He says, if a man wants to come after me, he must deny himself. So what does it mean to deny ourselves? Well, for us to understand what it means for us to deny ourselves, we have to understand what we want. Because we have to know what we're putting off. To tell you to deny yourself if you don't know what you want is useless. Because you don't know what you're supposed to deny. So what are we to deny? We're to deny our lusts. We're to deny our desires. We're to deny the comforts that this world has to offer to us. We're to deny our love for this world.

And we have to see at the beginning of this text, each one of us will pursue this in different ways. But all throughout scripture, we're told that there is a better place to live. There's a more joyful time to come. And that where our treasure is, there will our heart be also. And we're told to look forward to that city, to look forward to that place, to look forward to that fellowship with God. And the point of all of... of all of this talk is to pry our fingers off of the comforts and the joys and the things that we pursue in this world. And every one of us does that. We all have things that we want, things that we desire, things that we have to have, that our happiness is based on. And we can look at one another and go, well, it's kind of silly for you to want that. I don't understand why you want that. I want this. Now this is something worth having. But the reality remains, you and I,

have things in this world that we dig our nails into and we go, I must have this. It happens in our hearts. We may not think these thoughts. Little kids, they say it. They have a clearer connection between their heart and their mouth. When they want something, it's acknowledged in their heart and it's said with their mouth. Give it to me. It's mine. I want it. And as we grow up, we learn to be more sophisticated. We learn not to do that. We learn to posture and we learn to manipulate and we learn how to speak in a way and to cover our backside. But we still have desires. I still have desires. I wake up in the morning going, that's what I want. I want this and today I should have that. And you do too. You have things that tug at your heart constantly that your hope and your happiness are attached to. And you go, I have to have it. I want to have it. Have you ever thought,

But it's a good thing. The thing I want's a good thing. It's not sinful to want this thing. This is a good thing to want. What you're doing is you're saying something true, first of all. The thing that you want may well be a good thing. But that's not the point. The point is you're saying you can't live without it. Your happiness is bound to it. Is it money? Is it children? Is it relationships? Is it the approval of man? Is it comfort? Is it stuff? Is it fashion? Is it health? What is it? What is the thing that you go, I want to have this. I need to have this. Go through the list. Money. Is money sinful? Is having money sinful? No. Is being healthy sinful? No. Is being married sinful? No. What about children? Obedient children? Is this sinful? No. And you can go down the line and we can list all these things and we say, are these things inherently sinful that you want?

And the answer is no. Now, there are things that are inherently sinful to want, and we have to deny those too. But there are things that are not inherently sinful that we attach our happiness to. I can't be happy unless. I won't be content until. And we view God as though it's his job to furnish us with those things in the measure that we want them, in the time that we want them, and then we'll serve him. But this is not how God interacts with us. He comes to his disciples and he says, if anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself. And the easy thing to say you must deny is your sinful inclinations. But I will tell you that if you read the pages of scripture, you find God's people all over the place denying things to themselves that weren't sinful. When you pursue the desires of your heart, and some of those are bad and some of those are good, but when you pursue them, what you're engaging in,

You're indulging your flesh. You ever sit at the dinner table and you go, what's for dessert, honey? You want dessert. This happens with me, and I think I can't be happy if there's not dessert. There's got to be something sweet, something yummy. Do you have any cookies, honey? How about some pie? Is there any of that cake left over? Where'd you hide the kids' M&Ms? We have these desires. Do I have to have dessert? No, I don't have to have dessert, right? It's kind of a silly example. But what I want you to see is that when you have these desires and you go after them, what you're doing is indulging your flesh. You're indulging your flesh. And indulgence leads to sloth. It leads to an inability to function.

You know, I've worked in construction for a number of years. And you meet people, and you work with men, and some men are just lazy. They're just incapable of working hard. I'm convinced it's no longer a willful decision on their behalf. They're not even deciding, I don't want to work hard. What I'm convinced of is they've lost the ability to work hard. It's been rooted out of them. They've lived their life indulging themselves. And then when an expectation is placed on them, they are incapable of meeting it. And those men can't keep regular jobs. The ones they keep, they can't excel at because they've lived their life not denying themselves. Their ordering principle has not been self-denial. Their ordering principle has been self-indulgence. And the end of it has been they no longer can work. They're incapable of it.

And when they do have to go to work, they have this adversarial relationship to any burden being put on them. You want me to do that? Yes, that's what I pay you for. Well, I don't think I should have to do that. Well, that's not your decision now, is it? Self-indulgence leads to sloth. And self-indulgence is the opposite of self-denial. And Jesus says, if anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself. And so if we're to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, we ought... to understand and have a place in our minds to grasp the concept of self-denial. And not just because the thing we're denying is sinful, but rather because when we live a life of, I want it and I can have it, so I'm going to take it. I want it so I can have it, so I'm going to take it. We need to see that that way of thinking leads to fruitlessness, unproductiveness, grumbling and complaining when you can't have it.

Another way to say this is that self-denial facilitates our service to Christ. To become a good servant, soldier of Jesus Christ, you must be able and actually do it. You must actually deny yourself. If you don't deny yourself, your service to Jesus Christ will be hindered. It's impossible for it not to be. If you think your boss expects a lot of you and expects you to do difficult things and to work crazy hours and to do all of that, I say Jesus expects far more of you. He commands and requires far more than your boss ever could. And he provides for you something that your boss never could. But his expectations and his demands are far more than you'll face from anyone in this world. And if you live a life of self-indulgence, you'll scoff at his commands.

The next part of this phrase is that he says you have to take up your cross. And we understand the imagery of Jesus having been hung on a cross and killed on a cross. And that he had to bear the cross. And when he couldn't bear his cross anymore, Simon, this man, was brought in to carry Jesus' cross. And we understand that he bore that cross and carrying it literally until his body gave out. He couldn't. And we understand the same... imagery the same picture is being put forth for us deny yourself and take up your cross and we realize taking up our cross is hard it's difficult it's burdensome and if we don't deny ourselves we will be incapable of carrying our cross you can't carry your cross and all of your wants and your desires you can't carry it all you just can't and so self-denial makes it It clears the way for you to be able to carry your cross. It lightens your load. It empties your hands. Another word about this denial, this self-denial. It ought to be both public and private. Now, I want to explain what I mean by that so that it's not abused. Our self-denial first should be public or it should be visible. Now, I don't say this to say you should do it to get attention, that you should go without when people are watching so that they go, oh, look.

They're going without that. They said no. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that if you live a life of self-denial, it will be evident. People will be able to see it. You won't be showing it to them. It'll just be obvious from the things that go on in your life. Going through FPU right now, one of the things that undergirds Dave Ramsey's teaching is self-denial. Just because you have money doesn't mean you have to spend it. It's revolutionary to people. It really is. This idea that just because we have money does not require us to spend it. It changes people's worlds. This simple idea of denying their desire. But the thing I want is not sinful. Can't I go get it? Didn't I work hard? Don't I deserve it? No.

Just because you have money doesn't mean you have to buy things with it. You have to spend it. So what kind of people have money and don't understand this? People who win the lottery. What happens to people who win the lottery? They die because they don't know how to live with money and they do foolish, foolish things. But if they don't die, what always ends up happening? What else did you guys say? You said they file bankruptcy. Now why? How could you win? A hundred million dollars. How is it possible to end up filing bankruptcy? How does that even work? It's impossible unless they don't know how to deny themselves. And denial in that situation would look like this is gift earnings and the tax rate on this much money is through the roof. And so you can't spend it all. You just can't because Uncle Sam wants his.

And so if you spend it, all of a sudden, where'd all the money go? And you can't pay your tax bill. Why? No self-denial. Gotta have it. Gotta have it. End up filing bankruptcy. And it's inconceivable to me how you could... So you get $100 million, and you've got to give $50 million of it to the government. How could you not live on $50 million? I mean, really. How could you not? But do you know how many people in this room... myself included, if you handed me $50 million, I wouldn't know what to do with it. But man, I'd have all kinds of stuff. And it'd be gone. So that's one side of someone who, that's an illustration of someone not being able to deny themselves. Now, have you met people who have money, who you know have money? And I don't necessarily mean gobs and piles and loads of money, but I just mean they don't live check to check. And have you observed them saying no to things? Yes, you observe them.

Their life. Now, are they doing it so you can see it? No, they're not. It's not about you and you seeing it. But you can observe in their life that they don't have everything they could have. They've denied themselves. They live frugally. They've learned what it means to deny themselves. And so this is what it means for our self-denial to be public. It should be, if it's a part of our life, other people will be able to observe it. We don't have to draw attention to it. We don't have to make a show of it. We don't have to talk about it. Those who have eyes to see will look at our life and they'll see. These people understand what it means to sacrifice. They understand what it means to deny themselves. And so our self-denial should be public. Now, it should also be private. And if you're concerned that...

well, if I deny myself publicly, then everyone's going to watch and that's going to work on my brain in all kinds of difficult ways because I'm going to do it so other people are seeing it. The way you fight that is to deny yourself privately too. That's how you do it. You deny yourself privately. What's it mean to deny yourself privately? It means that you deny yourself things that no one's going to know about. They can't know about. They can't see it. If you're only concerned about other people seeing it, your self-denial, you'll never do it when they won't see it. And so your denial should both be public, obvious to other people. There should be things in your life that they can observe, but it should also be private. There ought to be things that you do that nobody sees except the Lord and maybe your spouse or your children as they get older. Anyone who wishes to come after me must deny himself. And having denied ourselves, the second part of Jesus' call is that we're to take up our cross. Now,

This is not popular. The idea that to be a Christian requires something of you, demands something of you, is not popular. And there's a real temptation for us to lie to ourselves and to lie to others about the cost of being a disciple of Jesus Christ. We want to think of Christianity as being all good. All positive. All comfortable. All easy. And getting better. And that's part of the story. And that part shouldn't be neglected. It's not an either or. It's both and. There is joy. There is peace. There is comfort. There is ease in loving Jesus Christ and being his disciple. But there's also work. There's also difficulty. There's also toil and trial and crosses to bear.

If you're a disciple of Jesus Christ, you willingly take up that cross and you bear it. And we can't lie to ourselves saying, well, I want to be a Christian, but I don't want to have to do all that. I don't want to have to do that hard stuff. I don't want there to be a cost associated with my faith. And I say to God and even to Christians of times gone by, they would not recognize that as faith. They wouldn't recognize our unwillingness to suffer for the name of Jesus Christ. as Christian faith. They'd say, you think God made you and exists to provide you the things that you want. You live as though you're God and he's your creation. And this is not Christian faith. Christian faith is denying ourselves and taking up our cross and following Jesus Christ. You know, and let me explain it this way. In America, are there more men in church or more women in church? More women in church. Okay.

Why? Do you know why? Because there's no work to do. And men don't hang out where there's no work to do. It's one simple way of explaining the problem in the church today. Men respond ungodly, dead in their sins and trespasses, enemies of Christ, those kind of men. They respond to being called to something, to action. There's something that God's written into their nature. that says, give me something to do. Tell me how to serve. Tell me where the work is. This is what a good soldier does. Where's the work? Where's the danger? Where do I need to be and what do I need to be doing? That's what they want to know. I was just talking with a man this last week and that was his gripe about his current church. He said, they don't have any work for me. I come and I listen to the sermon and I go to a small group and then that's it.

I just come and just receive. And he says, I don't want to just receive. And he's got little kids. And he says, my kids, they come and they go to the classes, but there's nothing for them to do at church. And I don't like that. There's no work for my kids and for me to do. And this is true of men. They want something to do. And so if you think, oh, men, they're not going to like if you say there's work to do. I say, you're doing them a disservice and you're lying to them. There's work. There's responsibility. There's something for men to do.

as Christians. It seems crazy, but taking up their cross is attractive. It's difficult. It may be scary, but it's attractive to them. And you want to know how this all plays with women? Those men are attractive to women. Grown women, they don't want a grown son, a grown child to take care of. They want a man. And men need work. And women love men who bear their cross. And they come alongside them. And they respect them. There's a man who won't, if you're talking about a godly woman and she sees a man who won't work, she'd just as soon slap him in the face and look at him. They want nothing to do with those kind of men. And so there's no point in lying to men or to women about the reality of crosses being born as Christians. Both men and women have crosses to bear. I've only talked about it in terms of men.

But women have crosses to bear as well that are particular to their sex. We must not lie to ourselves or to others about the cost of being a Christian. Self-denial and bearing our cross, they're the meat and potatoes of the Christian life. No one can become a disciple of Jesus Christ without doing these two things, denying themselves and taking up their cross. Jesus has just taught his disciples that he has to suffer and die. And now he teaches his disciples that this is their path too. They must relinquish this world. and the comforts of it, and replace it with their cross. Now, there's two things I want to say specifically about taking up our cross. The first is, Luke tells us that we're to do this daily. He must deny himself and take up his cross daily. And there are other places in Scripture where we're told to do things daily. In the Lord's Prayer, we pray that he would provide us our daily bread.

When the Israelites were in the wilderness, they prayed daily for food. And so this is not, this taking up of our cross is not something that happens intermittently. It's something that we must do daily. Faithfulness in this work. Because of, you know, faithfulness means steadiness. It means consistency. It means perseverance. It means long time. You know, if someone says, I was faithful for 20 minutes to do this. You kind of laugh at them. You're like, no, that's not how we measure faithfulness. We measure faithfulness in bigger chunks of time. We're talking months. We're talking years. We're talking decades. We're talking your lifetime. Growing in faithfulness. And so if we're to be faithful to do this, we have to do it daily. You don't do it intermittently. Here today, not tomorrow, maybe next week, if I get around to it.

The reason we have to do it daily is because we live in the midst of a war. Our enemy would have us love this world and die. And you tell me, does he give you any rest? If you get no rest from him, then you get no rest from the cross. You don't get a rest now. You will get rest. If you bear your cross in this world, you will find rest for your soul. But you won't find it this side of death. And so we do this work daily. We take up our crosses daily and follow after Jesus Christ. The last thing I want to say about taking up our cross is that you must do it willingly. You must do it willingly. This world is filled with difficulty, with dangers, with hardships, with toils. And all of those realities aren't exclusive to Christians.

Everyone sees this in this world. The world isn't only fallen for Christians. It's entirely fallen for everybody. And even unbelievers understand that there are burdens that they have to carry if they want their life to go well. If they want to have food and shelter, there are hard, difficult things that they have to do. They have to go to work if they want to eat, don't they? God causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust, and yet both of them have to plant seed. And so the question is not, did I bear my cross? The question is more pointedly, did you willingly bear your cross? Or did you grumble and complain about it the whole time? You say, this is getting to be too much, Pastor, and you're only one verse in. And I say, there's more to be said. You have to bear the cross willingly. You have to see it in the moment. When you do it, you have to identify with Jesus Christ.

If you die with him, he died on that cross. If you identify with him in his death, you'll reign with him in his glory. And to reign with him in his glory, you have to identify with him in his cross. And you have to do it daily. And you have to do it willingly. The final thing I want to say about taking up your cross is that this does not mean, this is not strictly speaking, meaning that you will have to live the exact life and face the exact end that Jesus did. He was appointed to suffer and to die at the hands of the chief priests and the Pharisees. And he died a martyr's death. And there are other of his disciples that are here that he's speaking to who will die a martyr's death, who will die for their faith. And yet not all of God's people will die a martyr's death. And not all of the men that he's speaking to died martyr's deaths. And so what is our goal? Is our goal to die the way Jesus died? No, that's not the goal.

Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 2, he says, Why? So that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. What are you supposed to aim at? You're supposed to aim at leading a tranquil, peaceful, quiet life in all godliness and dignity. If I bear my cross, If I do that, I can't live a peaceful, tranquil life. And I say, why do you think that? Where does God's word say that? Jesus tells you, bear your cross. Paul says, seek to live a tranquil, quiet life. And we create the conflict. We say, if I bear my cross, I won't have peace. Bearing our cross causes turmoil in our lives. The reason is this. You're right. The reason is that faithfulness to God tends to produce persecution in some one form or another. All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. Those who seek to live, just seeking to live a peaceful and quiet life is different than being granted by God a peaceful and quiet life. And if you study church history and the things that Christians have, the environments that they've lived in, you find peaceful and quiet lives

weren't always the norm. And yet bearing their cross is always the norm. That's the staple. And so we pray for peaceful and quiet lives, tranquil lives. But we don't neglect bearing our cross so that we can have our comfort in this world. Self-denial and taking up our cross is what it means to follow Jesus Christ. This is the cost of discipleship. This is the price of eternal life. If we cling to our life here in this world, we will have forfeited our life in the world to come. Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake, he is the one who will save it. Jesus goes on and he says, Here, Jesus shows the futility of pursuing your lusts. You and I, we believe foolish things about how this world works and what will make us happy and what will content us.

In Job 121, Job says, Every one of us knows that we can't take anything out of this world with us. You can't take any of the stuff you accumulate. It doesn't go with you. Naked you've come in, and naked you'll go out. Then the question comes, so why do we spend so much time and energy seeking to accumulate things that really can't satisfy us? Why do we spend our time and our energy trying to gather up all of the worldly pleasures and treasures that we can when we can't take them with us? Jesus says that if we do that, we gain the whole world, that in the pursuit of all of those things, we will lose ourselves. We will lose our souls. We will forfeit them. Because we can't have both. We can't pursue both. These are mutually exclusive pursuits. In Luke 12, Jesus tells them a parable.

And he says, The land of a rich man was very productive, and he began reasoning to himself, saying, What shall I do since I have no place to store my crops? Then he said, This is what I will do. I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come. Take your ease, eat and drink and be merry. This man has pursued the wealth of the world, the comforts of the world, the ease of the world. Soul, you've done a good job. You've laid up food for many years. Enjoy it. But God said to him, you fool. This very night your soul is required of you. And now, who will own what you have prepared? So is the man who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. So is the man who loves this world and doesn't deny himself and doesn't take up his cross. When it all comes to an end and God finally balances our account with him, if we've spent our lives pursuing the...

the pleasures of this world, we will find ourselves deficient in what we need for eternity. So what does self-denial and taking up our cross actually look like? It looks like loving Jesus and his word. Jesus warns his disciples, whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the son of man will be ashamed of him when he returns. Now this teaching is, this saying of Jesus is introductory. It's general. We need to flesh it out. Remember that Jesus had just told them that he was going to suffer and die. And you remember at the beginning, I said, Peter takes him aside and he rebukes him. He says, God forbid it, Lord, this shall never happen to you. But Jesus said to Peter, get behind me, Satan, you are a stumbling block to me. For you're not setting your mind on God's interests, but man's. We can clearly see that Peter is holding on to what he wants and he rebukes Jesus for what he says. Now, it may seem like a strange example because you and I, you know, from our vantage point in history say, well, what Peter did was wrong.

We would never do something like that. But you and I, though we may not be tempted to hate that particular thing that Jesus said, all have our own particular temptations to hate the things that Jesus has said, things that are contained in his word. There are things in scripture that we are ashamed of, that make us uncomfortable, that we don't want to lead with or talk to people about because it wouldn't be popular. Sometimes it's a particular passage. Sometimes it's just a general truth that we observe and collect from Scripture. But there are things that each one of us are uncomfortable with. And we go, oh, don't say that. If you say that, you don't know what the people might think or do. They might reject the faith if you say that. And I say, so we're going to engage in hiding that, concealing that, lying that, covering that, and then expect them to understand the cost of discipleship? That's not going to work.

There are things that Jesus said that we don't like. Consider Peter again. He abandoned Jesus. He was ashamed of Jesus. After this whole thing goes down, you know, in real time where he rebukes Jesus and Jesus rebukes him, and they go on and they go on, and eventually it comes to the night where Judas betrays Jesus. And Peter's with him. And all of these thugs come to arrest Jesus. And Peter lops off the guy's ear. Jesus says, what are you doing? And he puts the guy's ear back on. and heals him. And what's Peter do? He flees. Now he doesn't flee entirely away. He flees and follows at a safe distance all the way into town. And Jesus has told him, you're going to deny me. You're not going to want to be associated with me. And Peter says, never. And Jesus says, I tell you that before cock crows in the morning, you'll have done it three times. And what happened? Peter did just that. He was ashamed of Jesus Christ. He's cursing at little girls.

about how he doesn't know Jesus, doesn't want to be associated with him. What Peter deals with here, hating both what Jesus says to him and Jesus himself, his person, Peter did not want to be associated with him. This is what Jesus warns us against. Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, do you recognize in your heart the temptation to be ashamed and the ways that you are ashamed of Jesus Christ? Peter was. Jesus says, if you're ashamed of me now, I'll be ashamed of you later when I come in my glory and the glory of my father and the glory of the angels. And so are you seeing, are you feeling the weight of discipleship, the cost of it? The question, is this going to turn out? Is this worth it? Is it worth it to do all of this? This is so difficult. This is the bar is so high. The temptations are so great. Is it worth it? And Jesus ends his discourse with them by saying to them, I say to you truthfully.

I'm not lying to you. I say this to you truthfully. There are some of those standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God. And this is given to them as an encouragement to strengthen them, to equip them, to follow after him. He says to them, some of you will not die before you see this thing I've come to establish done. You'll see it. People that had come before these men in this time, they saw it by faith. Even Simeon, when Jesus is brought into the temple, Simeon says, Now, Lord, you are releasing your bondservant to depart in peace according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation. My eyes, Simeon says, have seen by faith the establishment of your kingdom. Because here's the promised one. I can die now in peace. Because I've seen your salvation.

And Jesus says to his disciples here, what Simeon saw by faith, by seeing me in my body, some of you will see in reality. You will see my death. You will see my resurrection. You'll see me afterwards. When Jesus was on the cross and he cried out, it is finished. His kingdom was established. And it was confirmed by his resurrection. Even the thief on the cross in Luke 23. says to Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom. Speaking of this kingdom that's going to come in the future. Remember me when you come in your kingdom. And he said to him, truly I say to you, today you shall be with me in paradise. When was his kingdom established? It was established in the sight of these disciples. His kingdom was established 2,000 years ago. It was begun. Now, is there work to do? Yes.

It's to grow. It's to grow. After his kingdom was established through his death and his resurrection, Jesus goes to his disciples and he commissions them. Go, therefore, and make disciples of the nations. Call them to follow me. Call them to deny themselves, to take up their cross. Because if they want to have life in this world, they're going to lose their life eternally. Call them. Teach them to observe everything that I've said. Make disciples. Teach them to deny themselves. Now, we're 2,000 years downstream of that. And what is our place? What is our work? Our work is to continue that, to continue to build God's kingdom. That's our work. That's our place. Denying ourselves and taking up our cross is essential to that work happening and that work going on. For God's kingdom to grow, we may not, we cannot be ashamed of Jesus Christ or what he has to say.

You remember I said at the beginning that we live in a world where there's a bunch of different competing narratives about what's true. And it teaches you what to be ashamed of. It teaches you what to distance yourself from. I don't want to be associated with people who say that kind of thing. When there's competing narratives for truth, what you're being taught is what to distance yourself from, what to be ashamed of. And what I want you to know is that you cannot have hope of life eternal and be ashamed of what God has to say. You can't be ashamed of what Jesus said. You can't take your faith and hide it under a basket. If you're doing it, it's because you're afraid of losing something in this world. What can the world do to you? What can they do? They can mock you. They can persecute you. They can go so far as to kill you. But that's all they can do. That's it. That's the extent of their power.

then Jesus tells us not to fear that. Don't fear those things. And if we're not to fear our own death, we certainly ought not to fear the scorn of the world. You say, how can I bear the scorn of the world? And I say, like Jesus did, loving the people, caring for them, ministering to them, telling them what's true, because God said it. I was in an online, well, I decided not to be in an online conversation, but I made a comment online about, about abortion and that it shouldn't ever be legal under any circumstance. It's not okay. There's, there's no clauses where it's like, oh, well in this situation now it's okay to kill the child. No, that's not true. And so the response came to me from like a mutual friend, you know, my friend posted something and I commented and then one of their friends posted. And what she said to me is when you have a vagina, you're allowed to have an opinion about this. And what am I supposed to do?

I'll tell you what I did. Well, what happened inside of me is I wanted to start yelling and hollering and have all kinds of snarky, rude, obnoxious, true things to say. I was laying in bed thinking about it, how I was going to respond on Facebook tomorrow morning. And I kept the email that Facebook sends you. I kept it in my inbox because that's where I keep work that I have to do. There it sat right at the top. And I thought about it, and I thought about it. I mean, I can say really snarky things. And I decided, you know what, if you're going to say something, it's not about you. It's really not about you. It's not about me. I decided for reasons I'm not going to take the time to go into now, I decided not to comment anything, not to write anything, but to just leave it stand. And I mean, I could have written something I chose not to.

it was quickly all about me wanting to be right. And me saying, I'm not going to be ashamed of what Jesus said. I'm going to say this and this and this and this and this. And I go, so if you speak with the tongues of men and angels, but you have not love, and so I want it clear in your mind that being ashamed of Jesus and his words leads to silence on your behalf. But loving Jesus and loving his words does not lead to you being rude and nasty to people unnecessarily. Do you understand? It doesn't mean, because God said it, you can bludgeon people over the head with it in an unloving way. I had another conversation recently with a guy, and I was remembering, he says, I've got questions. Now, he goes to church every week, somewhere, and I got questions, and I said, that's right, I remember that you've got questions, and we should talk about those questions sometimes. I said, what kind of questions do you have? I got hard questions. Really, like what? Like, why do five-year-olds die? Okay, so...

Is that an easy question? Does that question have an answer? That question has an answer. Is it going to be a fun, popular answer? Is the world going to like that answer? No, they're not. Is there an answer that gives glory to God? Yes. Now I can answer that question and I can go, I can talk about it and say, well, we live in this fallen world and it's broken and everyone dies and we're all sinners and we're all this kind of stuff. And so when kids die, that's just God doing his thing. Then they deserve it. Is it true? That's true. That's one way you can have that conversation. And I wasn't ashamed of what Jesus has to say. I gave glory to God by saying, God's God and not you. And your sense of right and wrong is whacked out. But I better come up with a better way of saying it. There's no need for me to speak that way and to be harsh. There's a way of communicating with love and without shame the truth of God's word.

Regarding that question, let's just think about it for a minute. Regarding the question of why do five-year-olds die, which is just the question this guy happened to lead with, is that a hard question for you to answer? Do you like the answer? You don't like the answer. You don't like it. It's not comfortable. It's not palatable. And what you'll find is that when you don't like what God has to say, you will be harsh with other people because you're not settled and you're struggling and conflicted about what God has said. And I say, I understand, brother. I understand. And you and I need to grow past that. You need to grow beyond that. Because that's a form of being ashamed of what Jesus says. He shouldn't do that. If I had my way, that would never happen. And I say, if you had your way, you'd go to hell also. The final thing I'll say is about Peter. Peter was ashamed of Jesus Christ. And he denied him.

Peter was ashamed of what Jesus said, and he rebuked him. And Peter repented, and he was useful to God. He saw God's kingdom established. You have the end of the Gospels with Peter's denials of Christ. And you have the beginning of Acts and the beginning of God's kingdom beginning to grow. And who's out there in front? Peter's out there in front. And so I don't want you to take away from all of this. looking at the cost of discipleship and denying yourself and go, I can't. I say, no. If you can't, then Peter can't, but Peter did. And if Peter did, then you can. Because Peter was only able to do that because God blessed him with faith and with the ability to repent of his sins and to turn to God and to speak the truth in love to the dying world.

And yet Peter still wasn't perfect. So he goes through this transition where he rebukes Jesus and he gets rebuked. And he lops off the guy's ear and then Jesus rebukes him and then he denies him. But then he turns around and he preaches and acts and then he's perfect and everything's great. And I say, no, that's not true. When Peter went to visit Paul, Peter was still sinning. He still wasn't perfect. He still didn't want anything to do with the Gentiles because what would the Jews think? Peter wasn't perfect. When he was showing partiality to the Jews, was he ashamed in that moment of Jesus Christ? Yes, he was. And God's kindness to him was sending him Paul to rebuke him. And so don't make more out of this than what I'm saying. I'm not saying perfect or complete failure, black or white. I'm saying growth. I'm saying where are you? Realize that there are things that Jesus has said.

that you don't like. There are things that you don't deny. There are places in your life where you don't deny yourself. And I'm saying growth. Growth towards holiness. That people can see. That you can see. That you can testify to God's work in your life. Because look what happened. That's what we're seeking after. If anyone wishes to follow me, if anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. You can't be ashamed of what Jesus said and follow him. You can't. Let's pray. Father, we all fail in many ways and don't love your son the way we ought to. We're ashamed of what he said and the things that he's done. Many of them are unpalatable to us and we perceive that they're unpalatable to our friends and neighbors. We pray, Father, that you would forgive us for being ashamed of you and your word.

We pray that you'd forgive us for not following you, for not denying ourselves and taking up our cross. We pray that you would open our eyes to see the things in this world that we cannot take into eternity and yet we pursue with all of our heart. We pray, Father, that you would bring us to repentance and that you would humble us under your hand. We pray, Father, that you would teach us to love your appearing and to prepare for your appearing. We pray, Father, that you would give us love. for you that leads to love for our neighbors. I pray that you would keep us from being ashamed of your word. There's so many things that are foolishness to the world that we live in. And Father, we confess that we're tempted to believe that they are foolish as well. And yet, Father, your words are true. They're not foolishness. They are life to those who are being made alive. And they are death to those who are dying. And yet, Father, the fact that they are death to those who are dying doesn't make them any less true.

And so, Father, would you increase our love for your word and for your son? And would you make it evident in us and through us to this dying world? We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.