The Cost of Discipleship: Embracing Suffering for Christ

And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He spoke this word openly. Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. [00:00:54]

When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. [00:01:36]

For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or 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, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” [00:01:53]

Because from the foundation of the world, the Father’s plan of salvation determined that the Son of Man would stand in the place of His people, that He would live His life vicariously, and that He would suffer, not for His own wickedness but for His people, and that He would be rejected not because He was worthy of rejection but that He would be rejected for His people. [00:07:36]

And the punishment for sin before Almighty God was death, and if Jesus is going to save His people, it is necessary that the full payment for their sin be paid by Him. Now I find it interesting that in Jewish history, the rabbis of Israel in the translations that found their way into the targums of the rabbis, that they understood that the concept of Messiah was central to the Old Testament message. [00:08:10]

He would be a king. He would be a shepherd. He would be a liberator. He would be a redeemer. And all of these elements intricately are woven together, but the one element that the rabbis completely left out of the tapestry was the element of suffering and of shame. [00:09:38]

You mean the Messiah has to suffer, the Messiah has to be rejected, the Messiah has to die. You see, these men weren’t stupid. They understood that if the Messiah had to suffer, and if the Messiah had to be rejected, and if the Messiah had to die, what would that involve for the Messiah’s followers, the Messiah’s disciples? [00:11:51]

The Christian life, dear friends, don’t forget this, is a throwaway life. You got to know that. Every moment that you live without rejection, affliction, and death is grace. But our destiny as the people of God is be thrown into the garbage by the powers of this world and of this age, and there is no way to glamorize that. [00:26:08]

What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” I wish I had time to talk the whole hour just on that question. What profit? He’s using economic terms, business terms, commercial terms, and profit and loss statement. [00:27:05]

And from our Lord’s perspective, dear friends, if everything on the profit side of the ledger contains the whole world and the only item on the loss side of the ledger is your soul, you are bankrupt. You’ve lost everything. Jesus phrases it another way. “What will you give in exchange for your soul?” [00:28:32]

If you’re a Christian, how much did Jesus pay for it to secure the safety and the redemption of your soul, not for a day, not for a week, but forever? Everyday we are bombarded with ads on the radio and the newspaper and television. We have to have this. We have to have that. This is what will really make your life meaningful. [00:29:28]

If not, why not? I’ll tell you why not? The world hates us, and nobody wants to be hated. The cross is a shameful thing, and nobody likes to be embarrassed. So we have a deeply rooted personal desire not to be embarrassed, not to be ashamed, and so we will hide our true feelings and true devotion from the world. [00:30:47]