Pastor Scott Andrews | March 16, 2025
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Luke 9:23-27
I have told you many times that the gospel, εὐαγγέλιον, which literally means good news, must begin with bad news. You see, in order for the gospel to be good news, you must first recognize, you need the gospel. The gospel, that is, the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ for sinners is good news, but included in that definition is the bad news that Jesus died for sinners. That’s what we are – sinners in need of a Savior. And so, if you don’t see yourself as a sinner, or you’re just not that bad, you see no need for good news – you’re fine without it. You aren’t, of course, but that’s what many think.
Understand, that’s how Paul started what many call his seminal work on the doctrine of salvation in the book of Romans. In the first three chapters, he lays out the case that all are sinners and guilty before God – for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But the good news is that Jesus, the Son of God, did something about our condition – He took on human flesh, lived a perfect life that we could not, died a death He did not deserve, and was raised the third day as proof of God’s acceptance of His sacrifice. His death was substitutionary – He died in our place, taking our sins in His perfect body and life. That is incredibly good news.
And so, by God’s unmerited grace alone, through faith alone in the finished work of Christ alone, we can be born again – saved – redeemed – reconciled – there are all kinds of biblical terms to describe it.
Now, it is interesting to note – the good news wasn’t particularly good for Jesus at the outset. It’s why in the Garden of Gethsemane, right before they came and arrested Him, tried Him, and crucified Him the next day, He prayed, if it’s possible, Father, let this cup pass from Me. Hebrews says He prayed with loud cries. You see, He understood what He told the disciples some six months before that we looked at it last week. You remember, He started by asking them the question, who do people say that I am? Some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah or Jeremiah, others say one of the prophets.
But Jesus looked at them and said, who do you say that I am? Peter, ever the spokesman, said, You are the Christ of God, the Son of the living God. You’re right Peter, I am the Christ. But, I’m not what everybody expects the Christ to be. There must be some bad news first. They expect a political militant – that’s not me – I came to be a crucified Messiah. So don’t tell anyone who I am…yet. After the ascension, you should tell everyone. But for now, I must go to Jerusalem, suffer many things, be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, be killed, but raised again the third day. Now, He didn’t tell them at this time how He would die – just that He would, in fact, suffer and die.
But, that is ultimately good news, for a number of reasons: because it was planned in eternity past; it put God’s glory eminently on display like nothing else; it can be rightly said to be the climax of all history; and purchased worshipers for God for all eternity. But you do understand, it cost Jesus His life in an ignominious, gruesome, shameful, most painful death. And that’s just the physical suffering, not to mention the spiritual suffering as He bore our sins – all of them – at one time in one place, absorbing the wrath of God. But what it accomplished is why Jesus endured the cross, despised its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
So, I’m suggesting the good news starts as bad news for us, and was certainly challenging for Jesus. But it ends with the good news of sins forgiven and heaven as our eternal home.
Oh, but Jesus goes on from the text last week to share some more bad news, namely this: just as it cost Me, so also it costs you something to follow Me, to be a follower of Jesus Christ. The text is in Luke 9:23-27 – let’s read that.
That’s bad news…or is it? We are so confused in this country – even the church – about what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Yes, many believe Jesus died to redeem. But there’s cost to us? Yes, there is, but it is eternally worth it and brings contentment, dare I call it joy along the way.
It’s the message of the Bible. For example, in Philippians, the Apostle Paul actually wrote as he faced potential martyrdom, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain….I am hard-pressed from both directions, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is very much better…” Paul actually saw martyrdom for the sake of Christ – which he eventually endured – as gain. And then he goes on in Philippians to write these words, “For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.” Really? That’s part of the Christian faith? Paul finished the book by encouraging us to be content no matter what the circumstances – in suffering or not, in plenty or want – why, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Contentment in the midst of suffering and want.
In Colossians, he wrote something similar, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.” That verse means, not that there was something lacking in Christ’s atoning death – but that the church as the body of Christ, was assigned a certain amount of suffering for the cause of Christ. And Paul says, I want to do my part.
I could go on: in the Pastoral Epistles – namely II Timothy – Paul encouraged this young pastor to suffer hardship with him as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Then he said in chapter 3, “Now you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, persecutions, sufferings, etc…Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” The truth is, Paul talks about suffering for the cause of Christ in almost every one of his letters. And Jesus promised it over and over to His followers. If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you, oppose you. And as I look at the global political and religious landscape, I have warned of suffering, because it is rising, even here. Of course, if you’ve watched the news, you know that Christians were slaughtered in Syria, just this week.
“Who do you say that I am?” You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. So, Jesus said, now that you know who I am, you need to understand what I came to do. He began to teach them, the Son of Man must go to Jerusalem, suffer many things, be rejected by the Sanhedrin, be killed, but be raised the third day. This was the first of what were three passion predictions – I’m going to Jerusalem to suffer and die. And today, we call that the good news, the gospel. We like that Jesus suffered, because it gained me eternal life. But now we see, it brought us more.
Now, for Peter and the disciples, this was bad news. Peter thought the same way everyone else did, even today – the way of Christ can’t include suffering, a cross, can it? Certainly not. He pulled Jesus aside and rebuked Him. God forbid it, Lord! No way – not while I’m alive – that will never happen to you! That’s not supposed to happen to the Messiah – that’s bad news, Jesus – you’re mistaken. Get behind Me, Satan – that’s exactly what I came to do. You’re setting your mind on man’s interests, not God’s. And we’ve had that problem ever since – setting our minds on man’s interests, our own selfish, self-serving, self-interests, and not God’s. Isn’t it interesting – they saw the gospel, the good news, as bad news?
And now, if anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me. Deny, take up, and follow. And you preach that message in most places of the world, and they say yep, that’s what we’ve experienced. But here – we think something’s amiss. Other churches don’t teach that – of course they don’t. They make the future, promised blessings, present. That’s why they preach a health, wealth and prosperity theology. And they are wrong.
Listen, I’m not convinced the relative peace and prosperity we’ve enjoyed under the sovereign hand of God in this country has been altogether good for the church. Oh, it was for our good and the good of the gospel – but as people often do, we’ve taken God’s good gifts for His purposes of spreading the gospel around the world, and we’ve perverted it. We’ve made it a spiritual birthright. And we now not only avoid suffering, we think somehow we’re exempt from it. And if we suffer, something’s wrong. I’m going to suggest today, that when we suffer, something is actually right. Let me assure you, this is not bad news. Last week, we saw the Call to Christ’s Cross, this week, we see the Call to the Disciple’s Cross. Let me outline the passage:
- The Cost of Discipleship (23)
- The Paradox of Discipleship (24-25)
- The Warning of Rejecting Discipleship (26)
Let’s begin with that first one – the Cost of following Christ, which Jesus declares in verse 23. If anyone wishes to come after Me – to follow Me – that is, be a disciple, he must do the following three things: he must deny himself, he must take up his cross daily, and he must follow Me.
Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? From there, Jesus gives a compelling argument for His demands in the rest of the passage. In fact, notice how the next three verses all begin with the word, “For.” He builds His case – a case which leads to a sober warning of not following Jesus. In other words, this is not bad news – this is good news. The bad news is choosing not to follow, because you don’t want to pay the price.
We live in a country and a church that avoids pain at all costs. That sees suffering as evil. As I said a moment ago, we have those who teach a health, wealth and prosperity – that if you choose to follow Jesus, you’ll be healthy, wealthy, prosperous. No problems, Jesus will take care of all of that. In fact, if you’re facing problems, if you’re facing sickness, if you’re facing financial difficulties, if you’re facing suffering of any kind, then it’s because you don’t have enough faith.
That is not what Jesus says. Following Christ is cross-bearing. The truth of the passage is there will be a cross before a crown, suffering before glory, sacrifice before reward, giving before gaining, losing before winning. But, those rewards will come. That’s the good news. Three things Jesus says to the would-be disciple:
First, you must deny yourself. The word deny means to completely disown, to utterly separate yourself from someone. Here, you are to completely disown, utterly separate yourself from…yourself. You see, we are our own worst enemy. The one who would be a disciple of Jesus must completely disown himself. What is He talking about? Lots of discussion about that. Everyone agrees Jesus is talking about self-denial – that’s not difficult – but what do we deny? To what end do we deny ourselves?
Some have taught to deny oneself is to abase yourself, to live an ascetic life – where you forsake all life’s comforts, and maybe even necessities, like food, clothing, and shelter. For centuries after the life of Christ, hermits and monks observed lives of self-denial where they lived in caves or on top of poles or out in the desert or in a monastery. They wore, intentionally, rough, animal hair clothing to make themselves uncomfortable and slept on the floor or wooden pallets. They allowed themselves to eat only the bare necessities – maybe a little bread and water to stay alive. They took vows of poverty or silence or celibacy. Some went so far as to disfigure themselves, flog themselves, supposedly inflicting on themselves the sufferings of Christ. Those people walked through life thinking, “I feel miserable, I must be spiritual.”
Is that how we deny ourselves? No comfortable homes, no soft beds or pillows, no fashionable clothing, no pizza? I don’t think so. Paul dealt decisively with that in Colossians 2:20-23, “If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, ‘Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!’(which all refer to things destined to perish with use) — in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.” So self-denial has nothing necessarily to do with denying yourself food or clothing – of giving up chocolate for Lent. It is not the denial of something to yourself – it is the denial of self itself.
The paradox of salvation is that it costs us nothing, yet costs us everything. Yes, salvation comes by grace through faith alone, apart from any work we can do. Yet, to depend on Christ for salvation also means giving up your old life, with its pride, conceit, pursuits and ambition. You must renounce any claim to your own life and live wholly for God. This is the pursuit of the Christian life – growing in Christlikeness. Seeing more of Him and less of you. He must increase – we must decrease.
It is to say no to your fleshly desires, and yes to the will of God for your life. It is to recognize we still live in a broken world, with the vestiges of the sinful nature, and that our flesh battles against our spirit. It is to allow God through His Spirit to take control of your life day by day, to be filled with the Spirit such that His desires become your desires. There are lots of passages that talk about putting off the old self, and putting on the new, of putting to death the deeds of the flesh, of walking in the Spirit and not walking according to the flesh, of being renewed in your mind, on and on. Let me show you one, Ephesians 4:
17 So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind,
18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart;
19 and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.
20 But you did not learn Christ in this way,
21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus,
22 that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit,
23 and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
24 and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
That’s what it means to deny yourself day by day in the power of the Holy Spirit, so that you don’t fulfill the desires of the flesh. Does that sound like bad news? It isn’t. The life Christ has for you is more fulfilling, more satisfying, more abundant than anything this life has to offer. Denying yourself, that is, putting to death the flesh and living according to the Spirit of God, is the best life you can possibly live.
Secondly, in addition to denying ourselves, Jesus takes it a step further: you must also take up your cross – and Luke alone adds, daily. There have been lots of explanations as to what Jesus meant by this. We’ve minimized the statement by saying things like, “well, we all have our crosses to bear.” Some look at certain difficulties in life as crosses to bear – a difficult husband, a difficult wife, a difficult child, a difficult mother-in-law. A difficult job, a difficult set of circumstances, a flat tire. It may be something more serious – a birth defect, a serious illness, the premature death of a loved one. Listen, none of those are crosses. Jesus goes on to say, we lose life for His sake. Now, there would have been no confusion for the disciples as to what Jesus meant about a cross. They understood the cross meant one thing and one thing only: death.
You see, we’ve never been exposed to the horrors of crucifixion like they were. Most, if not all, had seen it. They knew when someone was marched out of town carrying the crossbeam by a squad of Roman soldiers, it was a one-way trip to a gruesome death. There is no evidence in history of anyone ever surviving crucifixion. So when Jesus said, you must take up your cross daily, they knew exactly He meant.
And so, by application, we can say, you must be willing to die to yourself – to put yourself to death and live the newness of life that is available in the life of Christ. It is a day by day, moment by moment decision when we say, the old life is dead in Christ – the new life now lives to God. Paul said it this way, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” To take up your cross is simply to be willing to pay any price, even death, for Christ’s sake. It is the willingness to endure shame, embarrassment, reproach, rejection, persecution, and even martyrdom, if necessary. This, I believe, is what Jesus meant. You see, He’d just talked about His own coming death – now He says, My followers must be willing to give up their lives – physically – if necessary.
Some in the early church took this too far. They actually sought martyrdom. (Origen). But that’s not necessarily what Jesus is saying. We don’t run to martyrdom – but nor do we run from it. We can actually face death the way the early Christians did – rejoicing that we are counted worthy to suffer for His name.
Again, when Jesus spoke of taking up the cross, there was nothing mystical in the idea to them. A man who took up his cross began a death march, carrying the very beam on which he would die. For a disciple to take up his cross is to begin the death march – to be willing, in His service, to suffer whatever lies in our path as we follow Him.
Third, don’t miss this one – if anyone wishes to come after Me, he must follow Me. That’s interesting. Basically, Jesus says, if anyone wishes to come after Me, follow Me, he must follow. You can’t say you’re a follower of Jesus if you don’t follow. My sheep hear my voice, and they follow Me. That speaks of obedience. To follow Jesus, very simply, is to be obedient to the Shepherd. In John 14, Jesus said, “If you love Me, you’ll keep my commandments.” It’s that simple. The disciple of Christ must say no to himself, take up his cross, and must obey Christ.
Jesus now goes on to explain the necessity of those actions – notice again, the next three verses begin with the word, “For” – they explain what He said in verse 23. He starts in verse 24 where He speaks of the paradox of Christian discipleship. If you focus on yourself, trying to save your own life, pursuing all this life has to offer, you will lose your life. It is only as you deny yourself, recognizing your own inabilities, only as you willingly face death to self, and literal, physical death, if necessary, it is only as you follow Christ, that you lose your life. And by doing so, it is only then you find it. In this life, and the life to come. There is a cross before a crown, suffering before glory, sacrifice before reward, giving before gaining, losing before winning.
Now, it is true, eternal life, the abundant life, begins now. Yes, it includes denying yourself, yes, it includes a death march, yes, it includes following Christ. But it is the most fulfilling, satisfying life of joy available on the planet. Because as Michael told us a couple weeks ago – the abundant life is this: we get Jesus. God doesn’t expect us to be miserable – He just understands our greatest joy is found when our greatest satisfaction isn’t in ourselves and what this world has to offer – it’s when we find our greatest satisfaction in Him.
Everything we’ve ever heard, everything we’ve ever been taught, everything the world would have us believe, everything we’ve ever tried to do – none of that will work. Our world tells us, the only thing you’ll ever get is what you grab for yourself. If you don’t go for it, you’ll never get it, because no one is ever going to hand it to you. Strive, push yourself, be all that you can be – look out for number one – you’re the only one who will. And Jesus says – doing that will result in eternal loss.
Oh, you may get what this world has to offer. Which leads to the second “for” in verse 25. You may gain the whole world. Good for you. But Jesus says, what is a man profited if he gain the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself – the parallel accounts say, and loses his own soul? If you live for yourself, if you don’t deny yourself, if you don’t take up a cross, if you don’t follow Christ, you will lose. And that which you lose is priceless and eternal – for, what will a man give in exchange for something as valuable as his own soul? Nothing. He argues from the lesser to the greater – the whole world isn’t worth your soul. You will lose it all if you don’t seek to gain it by giving it all to Christ. Does that sound like bad news? It isn’t. It’s the only way to eternal life. The good news is, Jesus came to bear a cross. The good news is, Jesus came to bring us a cross. And by bearing it, we find life. Now, to be clear, it isn’t by losing our lives that we gain eternal life – it is simply proof that we are truly followers of Jesus.
But Jesus isn’t finished. We see the third “for” in verse 26 – and by the way, this is truly bad news. Yes, disciples, you’re not completely mistaken about the Messiah. While it sounds like bad news – that I’ve come to bear a cross; while it sounds like bad news that I’ve come to bring you a cross – you’re right about one thing. There is coming a day when I will come to earth in great glory, and the glory of My Father, and the reflected glory of the angels to judge the world. And if you’ve been ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation; that is, if you’ve not been willing to deny yourself, bear your cross, and follow Me – then I will be ashamed of you. Again, don’t be mistaken, this is not works-righteousness – it is rather proof of true salvation. To be ashamed in this context is to reject – to reject Jesus and His words is to result in eternal rejection by the Son.
And the good news is this – we can, by His grace, by the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit, deny ourselves. We can bear our crosses, dying to self, spiritually and physically, if necessary. And we can follow Christ. Only as we surrender everything to Him.
I must tell you how convicting this has been to me this week. I’ve asked myself the question, in what way or ways have I denied myself, daily borne a cross, and followed Him. Notice, by the way, Jesus doesn’t say you must be willing to do those things – I’m willing to give it all up for Christ if He asks for it – fortunately, He hasn’t. No, He says, you must do those things. Deny, take up, and follow. So have I? Have you? If so, how?