Embracing Discipleship: The Call to Self-Denial
Sermon Summary
Sermon Clips
"If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?" [00:03:14]
"So first, what does it mean to deny ourself? We have this thing that we need to push down, tamp down, almost on a constant basis. It is the thing called the ego. And Jesus is probably the greatest psychologist of all time, to analyze deep into the human self and the human sense of self to know that we like it to be about us and that ego comes up." [00:05:53]
"To deny the self also means humility, to recognize the other. To recognize that I have something to learn from the other, and to be truly humble. And also to deny the self means that we are not here for ourself, but we are here to serve others. But was there anyone more than Christ who illustrated this in His incarnate life?" [00:10:05]
"To say, 'Take up your cross,' is to say, 'Can you bear and endure the absolute worst this world has to throw at you?' When Calvin again reflects on this verse, he speaks of taking up our crosses as living in a fallen world, of suffering, of enduring whatever our cross is as we live in a fallen world." [00:13:00]
"Persecution takes different shapes and forms. One of the things you realize as you study church history is that for the majority of the church, for the majority of the time, the church suffers persecution and is on the margins of society. We think of our brothers and sisters right now around this globe in various areas of persecution, of imprisonment, of torture." [00:14:22]
"Christianity speaks of our weaknesses; Christianity speaks of dependance, Christianity speaks of the eternal. None of that mattered to Rome. Rome was about strength. Rome was about autonomy and independence. And Rome was about the glory of Rome. And so, if you are called to be Christ's disciple, you are called to fly in the face of everything that defines the culture that you live in." [00:27:02]
"Jesus says, 'If you are ashamed of me before men, I will be ashamed of you before God.' The opposite of shame is this word 'glory,' when the Son of Man, when Christ comes in His glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. Let me read for you an extended quote from Calvin on this." [00:29:37]
"Calvin is telling us, and this verse is telling us, and Christ is telling us that the appearance is one thing, and the reality is another thing. The appearance is Rome and its power, and its power over you and its power to persecute, and its power to oppress, and its power to kill. That's the appearance. But here is the reality. There's a judgment to come." [00:31:16]
"Jesus Christ is Lord. That's the reality. Caesar is not Lord. Rome is not Lord. What does Luther say? 'The body they may kill. The body they may kill'. You know, if you were to put this all into a risk reward analysis and set up a balance sheet of what it means to be a disciple, in fact, go ahead and do it." [00:33:30]
"But now go to the other side of the ledger and just write one word. 'Glory. Glory. Glory.' It is not a literary accident that following verse 26 and 27 comes the next incident in the incarnate life of Christ. But Jesus is such a gracious teacher to us, an incredibly patient teacher, an incredibly loving and merciful teacher." [00:35:28]
"Because not only does He tell the disciples about glory, but He gives them just even a glimpse. That in the glimpse of this, they will know that being a disciple so far outweighs any of the negatives, any of the challenges. And so, we have the Transfiguration. In verse 29 we're told that the appearance of His face was altered." [00:36:31]
"Paul understood this precisely when he told us about 'these light and momentary afflictions.' He's not, not discrediting them. He's not discounting them. He's not a stoic. They're afflictions. They're real. And people we love will suffer as Christ's disciples. But let's put them into perspective. They are light and they are momentary, again, on the balance sheet." [00:38:38]
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"So first, what does it mean to deny ourself? We have this thing that we need to push down, tamp down, almost on a constant basis. It is the thing called the ego. And Jesus is probably the greatest psychologist of all time, to analyze deep into the human self and the human sense of self to know that we like it to be about us and that ego comes up." [00:05:53]
"To deny the self also means humility, to recognize the other. To recognize that I have something to learn from the other, and to be truly humble. And also to deny the self means that we are not here for ourself, but we are here to serve others. But was there anyone more than Christ who illustrated this in His incarnate life?" [00:10:05]
"To say, 'Take up your cross,' is to say, 'Can you bear and endure the absolute worst this world has to throw at you?' When Calvin again reflects on this verse, he speaks of taking up our crosses as living in a fallen world, of suffering, of enduring whatever our cross is as we live in a fallen world." [00:13:00]
"Persecution takes different shapes and forms. One of the things you realize as you study church history is that for the majority of the church, for the majority of the time, the church suffers persecution and is on the margins of society. We think of our brothers and sisters right now around this globe in various areas of persecution, of imprisonment, of torture." [00:14:22]
"Christianity speaks of our weaknesses; Christianity speaks of dependance, Christianity speaks of the eternal. None of that mattered to Rome. Rome was about strength. Rome was about autonomy and independence. And Rome was about the glory of Rome. And so, if you are called to be Christ's disciple, you are called to fly in the face of everything that defines the culture that you live in." [00:27:02]
"Jesus says, 'If you are ashamed of me before men, I will be ashamed of you before God.' The opposite of shame is this word 'glory,' when the Son of Man, when Christ comes in His glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. Let me read for you an extended quote from Calvin on this." [00:29:37]
"Calvin is telling us, and this verse is telling us, and Christ is telling us that the appearance is one thing, and the reality is another thing. The appearance is Rome and its power, and its power over you and its power to persecute, and its power to oppress, and its power to kill. That's the appearance. But here is the reality. There's a judgment to come." [00:31:16]
"Jesus Christ is Lord. That's the reality. Caesar is not Lord. Rome is not Lord. What does Luther say? 'The body they may kill. The body they may kill'. You know, if you were to put this all into a risk reward analysis and set up a balance sheet of what it means to be a disciple, in fact, go ahead and do it." [00:33:30]
"But now go to the other side of the ledger and just write one word. 'Glory. Glory. Glory.' It is not a literary accident that following verse 26 and 27 comes the next incident in the incarnate life of Christ. But Jesus is such a gracious teacher to us, an incredibly patient teacher, an incredibly loving and merciful teacher." [00:35:28]
"Because not only does He tell the disciples about glory, but He gives them just even a glimpse. That in the glimpse of this, they will know that being a disciple so far outweighs any of the negatives, any of the challenges. And so, we have the Transfiguration. In verse 29 we're told that the appearance of His face was altered." [00:36:31]
"Paul understood this precisely when he told us about 'these light and momentary afflictions.' He's not, not discrediting them. He's not discounting them. He's not a stoic. They're afflictions. They're real. And people we love will suffer as Christ's disciples. But let's put them into perspective. They are light and they are momentary, again, on the balance sheet." [00:38:38]
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