Today, there are many who claim to be Christians, who claim to follow Jesus. The problem is that not all of them actually follow Jesus. In fact, Jesus said that on that day when he's in his glory and he's judging, there will be many who will say to him, “Lord, Lord.” But what is Jesus going to say to them? “Depart from me. I never knew you. You workers of lawlessness.” So how do we know the difference between those who profess to follow Jesus and those who are actually following Jesus? If only there was a passage we could go to in the Bible that would define, once and for all what it means to follow Jesus. And I invite you to open the Bible and turn with me to the Gospel of Mark, chapter 8, verses 34 to 38 where Jesus is going to answer the question, what does it mean to follow him? And this is a question that people have been debating in American Christianity for my entire life. In fact, one of my core memories is my dad having a conversation with one of his friends, and we were visiting them, and I remember thinking my dad was cool. This guy was cool, and I was surprised to find out that they were having a disagreement. And the guy said to my dad, well, what does it even mean to be a Christian? My dad gave him an answer. He said it means what Jesus said that you deny yourself, you take up your cross and you follow him. And the man said to my dad, yeah, but who does that? And see, I wonder, what is going to weigh heavier for you here this evening? Are you going to go with the experience of many American Christians today, or are you going to go with the words of the Lord Jesus? Who is the Christ? Which one are you going to listen to? What if we find out here tonight that what you think it means to follow Jesus is not what it actually means to follow Jesus. Are you going to change your mind based on what Jesus says, or are you going to stick with what you think you already know and have experienced?
I want to invite everyone to stand again for the public reading of Scripture, and I'm going to read Mark 8:34-38. Please follow along as I read.
And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life[a] 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 can a man give in return for his soul? 38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
That's the reading of God's Word. Please go ahead, grab your seat. And in your bulletin, there is a handout there if you want to take some notes as we go through these verses together. And these verses are going to get very specific and very clear on how Jesus is addressing. Notice here in verse 34, if you could circle “the crowd,” notice how this is to the crowd with his disciples. We've been talking about a conversation Jesus had with his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” And then he asked them up by Caesarea Philippi, who do you say that I am? And Peter gave the right answer, “You are the Christ,” the Messiah, the Anointed One of God. Well, then Jesus began to teach them that he's going to suffer and he's going to be killed, and on the third day, he will rise. And Peter, he was like, no, that's not what should happen to you. But here, as the conversation continues in verse 34, it's very clear the way Mark prefaces this paragraph where we're going to get more clear teaching from Jesus, he says, and calling the crowd to him. So, I don't know where this was. If they rounded up a crowd there in Caesarea, Philippi, if this was more back down in Galilee by the Sea, or if this was from some other place in time, and then Mark just puts it in here. But Mark wants you to know that this is not just between Jesus and his disciples, although they're included here, but this is for everybody, and that's going to be very important later on, because there's going to be people in this room when we leave here tonight who are going to be tempted to say that what Jesus just said is not for me, it's for somebody else. And so, we need to start right now, saying that Jesus called the crowd. And look what Jesus said. Look how it's translated here, “If anyone would come after me,” if whoever wants to follow me, whoever desires to be one of my followers, that this definition is not for the twelve. It's not for some people who will be Christians. No, this definition is what it means to be a Christian. A Christian is someone who's a disciple, a learner, a follower of Jesus. And we've already seen the example of this in the Gospel of Mark. Now we're going to get the explanation of this here in these verses.
So, go back with me to Mark 1:17, and let's just remind ourselves of what we've already seen about who did Jesus ask to follow him. Well, it started with Simon and Andrew here, when they were working as fishermen alongside the Sea of Galilee. And in verse 17 of Mark, chapter 1, Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you become fishers of men.” That's what we've learned about this beautiful truth that Jesus makes people his disciples. He makes us to become someone we are not.
These men are not fishers of men. They are fishermen. But he says that if they follow him. He will make them to be someone more than who they are right now. And it says in verse 18, “Immediately they left their nets and followed him.” In fact, we find more fishermen, James, the son of Zebedee and John, his brother. And “Immediately he called them, and they left their father, Zebedee, in the boat with the hired servants, and they followed him.” Go over to chapter 2, verse 14, also by the Sea of Galilee. We saw him come to the tax collector named Levi, the son of Alphaeus, also referred to as Matthew, and he's sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me. And he rose and he followed him. And as he reclined a table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.” So, we've seen Jesus going and saying, follow me. I'll make you become someone you're not. Hey, follow me. You know you're a sinner. The Pharisees, the scribes, they think you're sinners. Yeah, exactly. You're the kind of people who need to follow me.
So, we've seen it happen. But now, when we get to Mark chapter 8, verse 34, Jesus is going to say, here is how it works if anyone is going to come after me. Now the Greek word for follow here, akolouthó, this word is used two times in this verse, but it's not translated “follow” both times. So, if you're looking at verse 34, underline, “come after me,” because that's the word for “follow,” and then you see it again there at “follow me.” So, they decided to translate it “come after me” the first time, showing like Jesus is leading the way and you're coming after him. Because it's a little bit different there in the Greek, but it's the same basic word.
If anybody wants to follow me, if you want to be like these disciples and you're going to come after Jesus, well, then he gives three imperatives. Number one, deny yourself. Imperative number two – these are commands, these are must do's. Number two, take up your cross and then, follow me. Okay, so these are teachings here from Jesus in the imperative tense of what you need to do if you desire to follow Jesus; this is what it looks like. And he gives us these three things. You deny yourself, number one; you take up your cross, number two; and then you actually follow him. Following means you leave behind other things to now continue in this new direction of learning the way of the Master Jesus, like a rabbi who's teaching his students a new way to live. I have to leave behind the way I was living, and I have to pursue a new course following Jesus. Okay, so those are the three commands that he gives there in verse 34.
Now, if you're here for the first time, I'm so glad that you joined us here this evening, and if you haven't gone to much church, this is an excellent passage of scripture for you to hear explained here this evening, because this is different than how we do it in America these days. In America these days, we like to say, hey, here's what's in it for you. If you follow Jesus, here's the cookies you get. If you sign up here to follow Jesus, here's the benefit. And it's all towards prosperity, and it's all towards how it's going to work out for your good. Jesus, he wants to say, here's what it's going to cost you if you want to be one of my disciples. Jesus is not trying to invite you into prosperity. Jesus, he wants to give you clarity of what it really means, that's what Jesus cares about. He cares about you understanding that you have to deny yourself, you have to take up your cross, and you have to follow him. These are all three commands. It's not like, well, I'll try. No, these are the things you got to do if you're going to come after Jesus and be one of his disciples.
Okay, so you need to see that he's trying to be very clear in how he says that, and people, they're trying to act and you maybe have heard it. You maybe even have believed it. Maybe you even think it yourself like this is some kind of extra credit Christianity what's being described here. This is the AP class, the honors level class, and you don't need college credit right now, you're happy to just go to heaven later. So, why would you need to do this kind of more advanced level? Like, where's the version where I just come as I am? Do you see how, hey, just come as you are, well, that's a little different than deny yourself as you are. And so, maybe the way you've heard it before isn't the same as how Jesus is saying it here. So, who are we going to end up listening to what other people are saying or what Jesus is saying? I want to strongly encourage you, don't listen to any other person than the Lord Jesus Christ. Can I get an amen from anybody?
Okay, so let's get this down for number one: “Don't rewrite the definition of a disciple.” Don't rewrite the definition of a disciple. You don't get to define the relationship with Jesus. You don't get to say who a Christian is. If anybody has the authority, the power and deserves to get to say who his followers should be, it's Jesus himself. He is the Christ. He is the Lord. He is the one who calls the shots and defines the terms. And this isn't some kind of weird thing where the dictionary keeps changing the definition of words based on how we use them. Pretty soon, six, seven is going to be in the dictionary, and they're numbers, people. I mean, this is out of control. All the cool, trendy phrases that have been added to the dictionary, they're not real words. We don't get to make a definition of being a Christian. Jesus gets to write the definition, and he's given it to you here in three things.
Let's talk about the first one: Deny yourself. Okay, this idea of denying yourself, this is going to become very clear later on in the Gospel, and because he's going to tell Peter on the last night before he dies, he's going to tell Peter that he will deny him three times before what, everybody? Before “the rooster crows.” And so, what does that mean? When Peter is going to deny Jesus, someone's going to ask him, hey, aren't you one of the fishermen from Galilee? Hey, haven't I seen you with Jesus? Hey, aren't you one of his disciples? And what is Peter going to do? He's going to refuse to associate with Jesus three times. He's going to do it. That gives us a great definition of what it means to deny someone except the person we're denying here is not someone else. The person we're denying here is ourselves.
So, let's get this down for our first dash under point number one: “To deny is to refuse to associate with.” I refuse to associate with myself as I have been living before Christ. I deny myself. There are things that I have wanted, things that I have desired, things that I have prided myself on, things that I've identified with, and now I have to deny those things. I have to say no to me. Under that you could write down Titus 2:12, which says that grace, the grace that appeared in Jesus, a grace trains us, or teaches us to renounce, to deny “ungodly and worldly passions.” In this present age, if you want to say yes to Jesus, you have to say no to yourself. Can I get an amen? Do you know what you're saying no to yourself about? It's amazing how many people I've met here at this church coming to our church, oh, I've been a Christian for three decades. Oh, I did this. I was on the Missions Board at my previous church. And I'm just like, awesome. How did you get saved? What are the things that you're turning away from? What are the things that you're putting off? What are the sins that I could pray for you about that you don't want to associate with anymore? And they're like, why are you asking me these personal questions? This is offensive. Why are you talking to me like this? I'm talking to you like this because this is part one in the definition of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. It means you don't associate with yourself anymore. That's what it means. So, what are the things that you're saying no to in yourself? What are the things that you are renouncing, like, I can't have anything to do with that anymore?
So, you can write this passage down. Matthew 16:24, Luke 923, both of those verses say the same exact thing. So, in all three of these, what we call the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, they all come to this passage at this pivotal moment when they have announced that Jesus is the Christ, and he's telling them that he's going to die and rise again. In all three of these gospels, they quote this same idea, these same three things that this is what it means to follow me. You must renounce yourself. You must deny yourself. So, what are the things that you know, yeah, I can't keep living for that if I'm also going to follow Jesus? We saw they left the tax booth. They left the nets in the fishing boats. They left their father, Zebedee, in the boat. What are you leaving? There must be something that you deny in order for you to follow Jesus.
But it's not just if that sounds intense, well, look what he says next. He says, take up his cross. Take up his cross. Now, right away, when you and I read the word “cross,” we don't understand cross the way that they understand cross when Jesus says it here in Mark 8. So, Jesus doesn't die on the cross for many more chapters. Okay? This is the first time cross is mentioned in the Gospel of Mark. And if you were here last week, we saw when Jesus said that the scribes, the Pharisees, they're going to kill me, Pete was like, they're not going to kill you. That can't happen to you. So now he's saying, you’ve got to take up your cross. Cross was the way that the Romans really perfected execution. In fact, it was more than execution. It was torture, then death. The cross was not the symbol of Christianity. It wasn't the logo of a church. The cross wasn't a piece of jewelry or bling that people would like to wear as an accessory. The cross was the most painful experience for humanly possible.
So, let's get that down for our second dash: “The cross was a symbol of suffering and death.” And that's how everybody would have heard it when he says it here. I mean, do you see how Jesus isn't trying to talk people into this? Jesus isn't concerned about how people are going to feel about this presentation. Jesus is being very clear. If you want to come after me, you're going to have to deny yourself, and then you're going to have to take up your own suffering. You take up your own cross. You're going to have to be willing to sacrifice, even to the point of death. And you've got to get this picture in your mind from this passage forward in the Gospels. Jesus sets his face to go to Jerusalem, and Jesus knows Judas is going to betray him, and Jesus knows they're going to arrest him, and Jesus knows they're going to falsely accuse him, and Jesus knows they're going to mock him and beat him and flog him, and Jesus knows they're going to nail him to the tree until he dies. And he keeps going every step of the way. That's what he's saying you’ve got to do if you want to follow Jesus. You walk towards your own death. You walk towards your own suffering. You don't even hesitate; you don't even slow down. You just go into it, you take it up, you carry it See, they would have had the picture of people on the cross. They would have perhaps even seen people carrying their cross. And the problem is, we see cross like logo size or jewelry size. You're talking about a grown man struggling to even bear up under the weight of this thing as he takes it to his own death. To carry your cross is a long, slow, heavy march to an inevitable result. That's what it is, and that's what Jesus says here. And nobody thinks redemption, nobody thinks the beauty of God's love. Nobody thinks of all the ways that we are so thankful that Jesus died for us, and we know he loves us and we love him in return. Nobody's thinking that. In Mark 8:34, they're just thinking, wait a minute, you're calling us to die. You're calling us to suffer. We have to carry our own suffering. We have to bear up under the weight of our own pain. You’ve got to say no to yourself, and then you’ve got to be ready to suffer.
And you actually have to follow me. You actually have that Jesus is calling for action. This is something we need to understand. Whenever Jesus says like back in Mark 1:15 when he said, “Repent and believe in the gospel,” Jesus is not calling for a passive response. He is calling for an active response. Yes, he wants you to believe in him and what he did. You're not thinking you're doing anything. You're trusting in what Jesus did for you, but he is calling you to action, and you have to actively say no, to deny yourself. You have to actively bear up under the weight of the suffering, and you have to do things that actually look like the things of Jesus. Jesus said in Luke 6:46, “Why do you call me Lord, Lord and not what do what I tell you?” How did we get to the place where it's normal for people to say, I follow Jesus and then not do anything to follow Jesus? Maybe they think going to church is following Jesus. Maybe they think reading the Bible is following Jesus. Maybe they think that they prayed a prayer one time, or they asked Jesus into their heart one day, and that's following Jesus. But that's not what Jesus is saying here. He's not saying a passive response, that happened at some point in the past. He's talking about people who are actively moving closer and closer to him on their way to death, getting further and further away from who they used to be. That's what it means to follow Jesus. Following is included.
And so, we need to make sure that we haven't rewritten this definition. We need to make sure that we think this way. In fact, here's a good verse that summarizes what we're saying in Galatians, chapter 2, verse 20, “I have been crucified with Christ.” It's like I've died on the cross with him. “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” If you are a disciple, if you are a follower, if you are a Christian, it is no longer your life. It is Jesus in you. Can I get an amen from anybody? But if you listen to people at church, it almost sounds like they got their thing going and they got the Jesus thing going. And you can have both of those things happening. You can do your life down here on Earth, and you can have the life of Jesus that you'll get to more of that later. That's not what Jesus is saying, he's saying you've denied your life. And if you think I'm over exaggerating it, well, let's just go on to verse 35. Look at what he says. He says, “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake, and the Gospels will save it.” Look at all these four statements. Verse 35, verse 36, verse 37, verse 38.
So, we've already got the definition. We've got the definition with all three of its parts. Well, now we’ve got all these other thoughts flowing from that questions he wants to ask. Let's think about it like this, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” That's a deep thought. But look at the next verse. “What can a man give in return for his soul?” So, what you need to see here is in verse 35. Circle the word “life,” how it says, save his “life” or loses his “life”. Circle the word “life”. And then at the end of verse 36 circle the word “soul”. And at the end of verse 37 circle the word “soul”. They're all the same word “psuche” in the Greek language, and it's translated “life”. It's translated “soul”. Life makes you think about your brief time here on planet Earth. How many days do you have? How long will your body be working? Soul makes you think of the internal you, the you that will live forever, the you that's been created in the image of God. You have one life. You have one soul. What are you going to do with your one life? That's what Jesus cuts right to in these verses, in these questions. They're all about the same thing here. Do you think you can keep your life? Do you think you can save your own soul? Because if you try to hang on to this life, you're going to end up what? You're going to end up losing it. But if you lose your life, if you give your life life away, for my sake, in the gospels, then you will save it.
So, what Jesus is saying here is so counterintuitive to how people naturally think, and it is an all or nothing, take it or leave it kind of statement. There are two options given, keep your life or give your life away. There is no going back and forth. There is no hanging on to both of them. There is no one foot in with Jesus, one foot in with the world. You cannot love the world and love the Father. If you're a friend of the world, you're an enemy of God. You have to be either keeping your life or you have to be giving your life away. Only two options. If you think you're somewhere in between, you're deceiving yourself. There is no in between. Jesus, his eyes would look through all of us. See through our skin and bones. Jesus knows right now, everybody in the room who's still hanging on to their life and who's given their life already, they've already lost it to follow him. And the ones who are trying to hang on to their life will end up perishing, will end up destroyed. And the ones who give their life away to Jesus, they will be saved. You got one soul, you got one shot, you got one chance. What are you going to do with it?
And he asks such great questions. Let's say it all works out in this life. Let's say all the things that you would now deny to follow Jesus, let's say you didn't deny them. Let's say you indulged it all. Let's say you got exactly what you wanted in this life, in this world. What if you could gain the whole world? What if the universe could really seemingly revolve around you for a moment? What if all your desires for money or family or some kind of sin that you're tempted with, what if all the things that you would want to work out would work out exactly how you would want them to work out in this life? Look at the question that he asked there, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his” what? If you get everything you want, and then, in the end, you perish apart from God. Can you just take a moment with me to really consider what it would feel like to know that you have wasted your soul and there's no chance for redemption? You imagine, if you live the rest of your life, and you heard a message like this, and you heard Jesus clarify what it is to really go all in to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Him, and you thought, yeah, but what if it works out right here, right now? What if I get what I want? What if you do? But then in the end, when Jesus comes back, or you die, there you are, still alive even after death, with your soul that God created. You are a spiritual being made in the image of God. And here you are with your eternal soul apart from God, thinking I wasted my one chance. Is it worth it to gain the world and lose your soul?
And then look at the next question, verse 37, “What can a man give in return for his soul?” Like, how much is a soul worth? What would a soul cost? Like, what could you even give to gain a soul? Do you see that souls are the most precious commodity that there is? Souls are what are created by God. He forms us in our mother's womb. God created every one of us in his image to be, to have this spirit, this soul, this heart. We use different words to describe who we really are inside of our physical body, but let me assure you that when your physical heart stops beating and when your lungs stop breathing and your eyes stop seeing, you will still be you, because you're a soul. How much is that worth?
I mean, you can even get a heart transplant. You can even get like surgery on your eyes, where you can be blind, and then they can help you see. I mean, they can do a lot for your physical body these days to try to help you stay alive. But who can replace your soul? Who can help you fix your soul? Is there anything you can even do to save your own soul? You see what Jesus is doing with these questions. Because we're prisoners of the moment. All we've ever known is time and space, and we think what's going on right here right now is a really big deal. And I needed to work out right here right now. And Jesus with these questions, he's trying to help you realize, do you really need it to work out right here right now, or do you need your soul? Which one actually is what you need? Because if you try to make it work out right here right now and you try to keep your life, you will lose your soul. But if you give your soul to following Jesus Christ, you will be saved.
So, which one should you actually do? Which is the way you should actually think? See, I think we're so used to second chances. I think we're so used to thinking we got away with it. I think we're so used to sinning and oh, no, lightning bolt, no, no, ground opening up. I guess I must be okay, that what Jesus is saying is that's not really how it is. You have one life. You have one soul. And if you make your life about you, you will perish, but if you lose your life, he will save you.
So, let's get this down for number two: “You only have one soul.” What should you do with your one soul? “Give it away for the gospel.” That's what you should do. You only have one shot, one chance, one take at this. Give it completely away. For Jesus and for the gospel. Lose it completely. Go all in to following Jesus. That's the conclusion. I mean, that takes a while for you to think through what Jesus is saying, because you only have this one life, because you only have your soul, you should completely give everything you have to Jesus Christ and for the gospel. That's the way to make your life count. That's the thing to invest your soul into. That's the thing that will reap reward for eternity.
So, let's look at two passages, one that shows us the person who keeps their life in the world, and one that shows us the people who give their life for Jesus. Go with me to Luke, chapter 12, just a few pages over to the right. A story Jesus tells here in Luke, chapter 12, verse 19. Luke 12:19, it's sometimes referred to as the parable of the rich fool. And this man is thinking about his soul, his life, who he really is on the inside. And here we get a quote from this man thinking to himself in Luke, chapter 12, verse 19, “And I will say to my soul, soul.” So here he is addressing his inner being, soul, “you have ample goods laid up for many years. Relax, eat, drink, be merry.” Right? Doesn't that sound nice? Like, soul, you've got everything you need. You've got life. You're set. You can retire. You're set. You've got enough money in the bank. You don't have to worry. Just relax. Just enjoy your life. Just do what you've always wanted to do. Make it about you, soul. You finally made it, soul. And then in verse 20, “But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’” So is the one who lays up treasure, who keeps his life, kept it for himself. See, it seems like a sure thing, right here, right now, to live for yourself, to make sure you’ve got what you want, it seems like a good idea. It comes naturally to us, but God calls this man who's got ample goods laid up for time to come, who seems to be like, now's the time to enjoy the good life. God calls that man a fool, because he's rich toward himself and not toward God. He invested in himself, in the here and now, and he didn't give himself in his life to God. I do not want you to be this fool. I do not want you to be one of the people that Jesus says. I don't even know you. I do not want you to be one of the people. But Jesus, I knew about you. Jesus. Jesus, wait a minute, Jesus, I know you. Jesus didn't say, if you want to come after me, you have to know who I am. Jesus didn't say, if you want to come after me, you’ve got to know what I did. Jesus didn't say if you want to come after me, go to church or read the Bible. He said, if you want to come after me, you have to stop living for yourself. That's what he said. That was step one, deny yourself. You cannot live for yourself and follow Jesus. Is he making it clear to us? Don't be this man. Don't be this fool. That seems like you’ve got a good life now, but now God requires your soul.
Now go over to Mark chapter 10, because this phrase that Jesus says in verse 35 “for my sake and the Gospel’s,” this is really unique and interesting phrase in the Gospel of Mark. So, what is your motivation to give your life away? What is the motivation to lose your life, to invest your soul? You're giving your life for Jesus and for the gospel. You believe that the good news that Jesus died and rose again is worth giving your whole life for. Not only do you believe in it completely, but you're ready to tell other people about it. You're ready to pay it forward. You're ready to pray for it. You are all in on Jesus and his gospel. That's what it says. If you lose your life for my sake and the Gospel’s. Now, here in Mark 10:29, this is the conversation Jesus has with Peter and the disciples after the rich young ruler. Do you remember that guy who had so much, but he wasn't willing to leave behind his riches, his money, his materialistic possessions? Why? Because he had so much. He was so set. He was in the good life. He had everything he needed for himself, and he wouldn't leave it behind. He walked away from Jesus sad, and then they're having this debrief conversation about it. Look at verse 28. Peter's like, wait a minute. Hey, look see, we have left everything and followed you. Hey, wait a minute. We did leave behind the nets. We did leave behind our father and the boat. We did leave behind the tax booth and followed you. And look at what Jesus says in Mark 10:29, “Jesus said, ‘Truly, I say to you, there is no one.’” So, this isn't just for the twelve. This is for everybody. “’[T]here is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel.’” Same phrase as Mark 8:35, everyone who's left something for me. Look at what it says, verse 30, “who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. See. What are you going to do? Are you going to hang on to what you can get for yourself now? Or are you going to, by faith, give your life for Jesus and the Gospel? Because Jesus says every single one of us who leave houses and lands, who leave brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, children, we leave our material possessions, our money, we leave even our family, and we go all in on following Jesus, you will get hundred times your investment. What a promise. Hundred times return. If you give your life for Jesus and the gospel, you will get hundred times, even says you'll get it now, like he'll provide people to be your family. He'll provide places for you to live. Jesus, he provides everything that you're ever going to need. No, he'll take care of you. And you'll also get, in the age to come, eternal life. Oh, it's a sure thing. If you give your life away, if you give your soul to Jesus, he is the one who can save your soul. He already proved it when he died in your place. He already proved it when he rose from the dead. No, he's the one who can save your soul if you give your life to him.
So, see that the discussion here is, what are you willing to leave? What are you willing to suffer if you're really going to follow Jesus. What they're talking about is not some prayer that they prayed or some moment that they asked Jesus to do something for them. They're remembering. No, I left that behind. I gave it up. I said no to it. I decided that it would be worth it to follow Jesus more than it would be to live for myself. And Jesus is like, “Truly, I say to you,” everyone does that, you will receive hundred fold. You will be blessed both now and in the age to come. It will be worth it to follow Jesus. Your soul will rejoice in the presence of the Lord and his angels and his people forevermore, and you will not miss one thing you left behind on this planet. When you're in the kingdom, when you're in the New Jerusalem. Oh, hundred fold. That's what Jesus is promising to these disciples who did leave everything to follow him.
So, Jesus, he wants you to hear the clear definition, and then he wants you to consider you’ve got one life, you’ve got one soul. What are you going to do with it? There are two options, hang on to it for yourself, or give it away for Jesus in the Gospel. Which one are you? And if you're still not sure, if you're like, well, I don't know, maybe I'm somewhere in the middle. Maybe there is a middle ground. Maybe there's a Switzerland in this thing. Maybe there's a neutral territory. Maybe you can just kind of be kind of there. Okay, well, I want you to pay careful attention if you're still not sure which one you are. Two points into this, I want you to really pay attention to what Jesus says as like a test, as like an evidence here in verse 38. Go back to Mark 8:38, because he ends with this statement. He says, “For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” Okay? Does everybody hear what Jesus just said? If you're ashamed of Jesus and what he said. Now, in this generation, this generation that doesn't love God, this generation that's missing the mark and falling in sin, if you're ashamed to speak the name of Jesus, if you're ashamed to share the words of Jesus, the words of eternal life, if you don't want to tell other people about Jesus and what he said, well then, you should expect that when Jesus comes, and he will come, and he'll come riding on the clouds in glorious splendor, and the Holy Angels will be with him, you should expect him to be ashamed of you, then, if you're ashamed of him.
Now, okay, so let's really think that through what Jesus is saying here, this idea of being ashamed. You might have heard other verses that use this same word, like Romans, 1:16 “for I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek,” right? Paul's saying, I'm not ashamed. I'll tell people who Jesus is. He's the Christ. I'll tell him what he did. He died for their sins. That's right, they have sins, and they needed Jesus to die for them, and then he rose again to offer them a new, abundant and eternal life. How about 2 Timothy, chapter 1, verse 8, where Paul says to Timothy in his last letter, “do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel.” Timothy, I know I'm in jail and even they're going to kill me, but don't be ashamed of the Lord. Don't be ashamed of me. Be ready to suffer even for the gospel. So, this idea that you would be ashamed of Jesus, this would be a test. This would be a way for you to see, hmm, have I denied myself and taken on my cross, and am I following Jesus? Have I said I don't want to hang on to my life, I don't want to keep or save my life. I'm ready to give my life away for Christ. Have you really done that? Well, here's a test. When that moment comes where you feel the Holy Spirit leading you to say something, and you see the open door, and it's time to speak the name of Jesus. You hear somebody saying something bad about Jesus. You hear people at the workplace talking, and they're directing their conversation toward you, and they're talking about things, and you know, they're trying to incite you about Jesus? Do you speak his name? Or are you ashamed? Because Jesus says this is a way you can see where you're at. If you're ashamed of me and my words in this generation expect me to be ashamed of you when I come in my glory and everybody sees who I am. And everybody knows I win.
So, this is a really intense statement that Jesus makes here. It's both kind of a whoa, intense statement followed by this awesome picture of Jesus coming in his glory. Go over to Matthew 10:32, go over to just a few pages to the left, to Matthew chapter 10, verse 32, when Jesus sends out his disciples, two by two that already happened earlier in the Gospel of Mark. Here in Matthew, he gives a whole discourse to them as he sends them out. And he says this in Matthew 10:32 and 33 it's very similar to what he's saying in Mark 8:38. He says, “So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever” what does it say there in verse 33 everybody, whoever, what, whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.” But whoever, so we already know what deny means. We've already learned that whoever refuses to associate with me. Are you associating with Jesus? Does everybody know you're associating with Jesus? Does your family know? Do do your neighbors know? Do your coworkers know, if there's somebody who knows you long enough to really know you? Would they know I've given my life away for Jesus and the Gospel? Or is that something that they wouldn't know because you refuse to associate it with it? We're living in an adulterous and sinful generation. Would everybody agree about that we're living in a time where our country has taken major strides towards denying God his glory and being given over to our sin. That's happened in my lifetime, that's happened in your lifetime. And so, there's all kinds of things people are talking about all the time, and some of these things that people are saying, they're complaining, they're grumbling, they're talking bad about God and taking his name in vain. They're asking you, why do you care? Why do you do what is right? Why do you go to church? There are opportunities for you to speak his name. And here's what happens. You know if you speak his name, there will be trouble. You know if you speak his name, not everybody's going to like it.
And so, there's this thought that has crept into the church of Jesus Christ in your lifetime, in my lifetime, that you have an option, and you could just turn the volume down on Jesus a little bit, and it'll just make it all nice, and there won't be the conflict, there won't be the suffering, there won't be the controversy. I could say something about Jesus, but I could just, you know, kind of smile and we could move on. See, are you ashamed of Jesus and his words? Or when the moment comes, are you ready to say something about Jesus? To speak him, to speak his name, because you've already given your life away for him in the Gospel, you don't care what the crowd thinks. You care what the one riding on the clouds thinks. Do you live like Jesus is really coming back? Because if you live like Jesus is really coming back, you'll speak his name today, you'll carry his banner. Today, you'll carry his name all across this land. You won't care what the sinful generation that is about to lose their soul thinks. You will care for their souls, and you will be like you’ve got to know Jesus. He's coming soon. Every eye will see him, and the whole world will mourn and weep and wail as he comes and wins a victory over the nations by a word from his mouth. You're not going to say a word from your mouth because you're afraid of what people will think, you're thinking about the wrong people. The one you want to be, knowing that you'll speak his name is Jesus Himself.
Look at what he said before this. Let's go back to verse 26 of Matthew 10. He said, “So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden, that will not be known. What I tell you in the dark, you should say in the light, what you hear whispered proclaim on the housetops.” That does not sound like monitoring your own volume for Jesus. If anything, you're cranking it up, do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the what everybody? See, if you're afraid of what other people think, and that's why you don't talk about Jesus. Are you still trying to keep your life for yourself? The answer to that would be, but if I don't care what other people think because I've already given my life away for Jesus and the Gospel, then why would I fear them? I don't fear them. I'm not worried about what's happened to to my body. I'm investing my soul in Jesus Christ. I fear him. That's what he goes on to say, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.”
The next time that moment comes and you're like, I should be talking about Jesus right now, don't think about the people you can see and what they're going to think about you. Think about Jesus and what he knows about you. That's what he says. Think about me acknowledging you before my Father. Can you imagine Jesus bringing you up in front of the Father as one of his people? Can you imagine the day you're going to meet Jesus, and he knows your name, and he knows exactly what you did, he knows exactly where you came from, and he loves you, and he died in your place. It says in Revelation that when we meet Jesus, he's going to give us a stone, and on this stone, there will be a name that's just between us and Jesus, a name that he has for us, a way that he thinks about us, that nobody else knows about, just you and him. I do not care what people down here think about me. I want Jesus. I've invested my life in him. He is the one I'm living to please. He is the master I'm living to serve. He is the one I want to hear say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” I'm not here to please people. I'm living for the Lord. This is a test that Jesus gives. Are you ashamed? Do you deny him? Do you refuse to associate with Jesus?
Let's get this down for number three: “Don't associate with crowds, but the one coming on clouds.” Don't associate with crowds. The sinful and adulterous generation. Associate with the name above all names. I want to keep reading here in Matthew chapter 10, verse 34 to 39 because it's very similar to what Jesus is saying in Mark, chapter 8. Please listen to these words. This is Matthew 10:34-39. “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not” what everybody? What does it say? Whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” What does that sound like?
There are two levels of Christianity right there. Well, I just am somebody who believes it. I don't do all the carry my cross and follow stuff. Well, Jesus just said, if you don't take up your cross and follow him, you are not worthy of him. That's what Jesus says. He gets to define the terms. It's his relationship. He's the master. Were the servants. He's the rabbi, the teacher. We are the disciples. And then he says, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. See, this is what I'm praying for my brothers and sisters here at the church tonight is, when you're taking that step, the step that I have to take many days, many times, a step that feels heavy, a step that feels hard, a step that feels like I've got to wait and I'm carrying my cross on the way. I'm not sure how this is going to work out for me. It might even end up in my death. The next time you're taking that step and it feels heavy and it feels hard. I want you to be so convinced it will be worth it. Yes, I am going to Jerusalem. Yes, they are going to kill me. And yes, I will rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, I will see him riding on the clouds in his glory. And I will shout hallelujah, and I will know that it was worth it. Every single step I took. You need to be convinced of this. Harsh days are coming for us. Challenges and trials are coming for us. Persecutions are coming for us. And some of you, if you are not convinced of this, win again. You will want to monitor yourself. You will want to turn the volume down. You will want to just make it less controversial, less intense. And I want you to be convinced that it will be worth it and that you should keep going all the way to the end.
Go back to Mark 8 and look how Jesus ends it. He ends it not just with this test that you could see whether you're really giving your life away to him or not, but he ends it with this promise, “For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words and this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. The “Son of Man” here clearly referring to Daniel, chapter 7, verses 13 and 14, where “one, like a son of man,” comes to the Ancient of Days and he has given all power, all authority, all dominion of a kingdom that will have no end. Yeah. Wait till you see me and all of my glory. Wait till Jesus is unveiled. When Jesus is revealed, when you see the holy angels, when you see him coming on behalf of his father, the one who's inheriting all things. That's the idea here. In fact, look at what he says in verse 1, and we'll get to this next week. If you still want to come to this church after this in verse 1, it says, “And he said to them, ‘Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power.’” There's a lot of debate about what that line means, but what I can tell you, we'll study next week is that Jesus takes Peter, James, and John, and he goes up on a mountain, and he is transfigured into his glory in front of them. And so, let me just tell you, we are underestimating how awesome it is going to be to see Jesus. And if you're not looking forward to this, how are you going to say no to yourself in this life? How are you going to keep carrying this heavy cross of suffering and death, and how are you going to follow Jesus all the way to the end if you're not looking forward to the future? That's what kept Jesus going. Jesus, he endured the cross. He despised the shame, because he saw that he would be seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high. He considered the glory that would come after the suffering. He considered the crown that would come after the cross. See, and this is my concern. I don't hear enough people saying, Maranatha, I don't hear enough people saying, today could be the day, we should be sending more cloud emojis, more trumpet emojis, more weather reports in the city of Jerusalem, we should be looking to the clouds, because when he comes riding in, as soon as you see him, as soon as everyone sees him, the idea that I was afraid to speak his name to coworkers or neighbors will seem so ridiculous, it will seem utterly foolish. We will despise even the thought that I was embarrassed or ashamed to speak his name, the name above all names, the name at which every knee will bow, the name at which every tongue every single family member, friend, coworker and neighbor will all agree with you in the end, and it will seem foolish that you were afraid to tell them.
But see, for those of us who are not afraid, for those of us who are already all in, with nothing to lose because we've already lost it. It will be so worth it when he comes when he says, thank you for what you've done, I've got something for you to do in my kingdom. When he knows everything about you, has a reward for you will be so thankful that you've invested your soul into Jesus. That's what he's getting to here. Some of you will even get to see it before death, and then we're going to see his glory. If you come back next week, but I want you to know that you are going to see the glory of Jesus, and I hope that you have decided to deny yourself, to take up your cross and to follow him, because that's the only kind of Christianity there is. And if people aren't doing that, that's because they are not Christians. Am I making that clear to everybody? Jesus is making it clear. If anyone wants to come after me, deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me. You will have your soul saved. You will be with me in glory.
I hope that you have decided to follow Jesus. And I want to say, if you're new, this is what it means if you want to follow him, and if you're here and you're realizing I thought I was following him, but I'm really not, will you please talk to someone after this service? Don't deny the truth. If you know I'm not really following Jesus, let's talk about it. Don't just leave and act like it'll all be okay. No, let's talk about it here tonight. Let me pray for everybody.
Father in heaven. I thank you for Jesus saying these words. I don't know where he was when he said it, but I see the crowd gathering around. I see the disciples there, and I hear him say the clearest invitation of what it means to follow him that anyone's ever said. And I'm so thankful you brought us here that we could study this here together tonight. And God, I pray that there would be nobody who would leave here tonight thinking, well, I'm somewhere in between. I pray it would be clear to everybody here; they're either trying to save their life as it is now, or they're giving their life away for Jesus in the gospel. God, I have decided to follow Jesus, and there is no turning back. And I pray that I myself would be convinced. I pray for all my brothers and sisters, God, please do a work on our hearts as we reflect on what Jesus says in these verses, as we talk about it in our fellowship groups. Let every single one of my brothers and sisters, your people here at your church, let all of us be more convinced it is worth it to follow Jesus than we ever have before. And when our desires want to go a different way, let us say no to them. And when our cross feels heavier than we can bear, let us endure. And let us look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy, set before him. He endured the cross, he despised the shame, and he is with you now in glory. And let us see the glory by faith. Let us see Jesus riding on the clouds. And let us say, yes, I've decided to follow him. Let us not look at this adulterous and sinful generation. Let us not even look at our family members or our longtime friends. But let us look to Jesus and let us be unashamed of his gospel and let us know that it will be worth it to follow him all the days of our life. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.