Second Presbyterian Church

"Instructions to Follow:
Preaching From the Gospel of Luke"
October 17, 2004

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Sermons Homepage » Sermons for 2004 » Sermons for October 2004 » Sermons from the Series on Luke

#32 in the Series on Luke
The Rev. Daniel E. Hale, D. Min.

• Joshua 24: 14-15
• Luke 9: 18-27

By now you may not remember what I said when we began preaching our way through the Gospel of Mark. It went something like this. Luke has a strong critique and warning concerning the dangers of wealth and material accumulation. He holds no punches. When one studies seriously the Gospel of Luke he needs to wear steel-toed boots, because sooner or later Luke steps on toes. You may think that I limp because I am a polio survivor. No, I limp because my toes are getting flattened nearly every week. Today they are particularly painful.

We are at a very important juncture in Luke's Gospel. We have heard the disciples wonder just who is Jesus? We have heard Herod wonder just who Jesus is. Jesus was now asking his disciples what the crowd thought about him. The answer was identical to what Herod's servants told him: "Some say that he is John the Baptist who has come back to life. Some are saying Elijah has returned. Others say that one of the prophets of old has come back to life."

Then Jesus asked the disciples for their opinion? Who do YOU day that I am? Peter answered, "You are the Christ of God."

The disciples were correct. Jesus is God's Messiah. He was sent by God for a specific task: to redeem the world. Jesus strictly told the disciples not to tell anyone about him being the Messiah. Why? No one, at this point, in the Gospel really understands what it means for Jesus to be the Messiah.

Part two of our passage gives us our first indication as to how Jesus understood himself as Messiah: The Son of Man (e.g. Jesus) must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised."

This is no let-me-raise-an-army-and-we-go-kick-the-nasty-Romans-out-of-OUR-land messiah. No, this is a Messiah who offered himself as a sacrifice for the sin of humankind. He is the Messiah who chose to redeem us and to reconcile us to God by removing the barrier created by our sin!

It is at this point in this morning's passage when it goes from preaching to meddling. It is the instructions that Jesus gave to the disciples - and the readers - instructions to follow. Jesus gave three instructions about how we are to follow Him and then some verses explaining why these instructions are so important. They are: 1. Deny yourself, 2. Take up your cross daily, and 3. Follow Jesus.

I.
Deny Yourself

We live in a culture and a world in which self means everything. We witness people making a fortune who try to help people to better themselves. We focus upon how we appear. We focus upon what is best for us - me. We look everywhere for entertainment, trying to keep self interested and alive.

This is nothing new. The world has always been self-serving. People have always been seeking to do whatever they can to preserve who they are, what they might become, and what they have. Our society did not invent selfishness or self-centeredness. But perhaps our society has learned to take it to new levels of depravity.

Yet there are those who are self-centered even in their attempts at self-denial. Ignoring basic needs for life is not self-denial; it is, rather, a turned inside out form of selfishness. Living a life without placing your self first is a tremendous paradox. And Jesus' words express that when he stated what good does it do someone who gains the whole world, but loses his life? Or, "Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it."

To deny yourself means: put Jesus Christ and his Gospel ahead of yourself. Have our selves centered upon Jesus Christ and not our own personal concerns and needs. Another practical way to put this is to "Love your neighbor as yourself." In doing so you demonstrate how much you love God. When you do not love your neighbor you are demonstrating how you do not love God. (1 John 4: 7-12)

II.
Take Up Your Cross Daily

The second command is to take up your cross daily and follow Jesus. First of all, this does not mean the sufferings we experience because of arthritis, or some other chronic, debilitating disease. It does not mean the suffering we experience because our spouse or family member is alcoholic and has made life tough. These are tough experiences, but they are not bearing our cross.

To bear our cross is a conscious, deliberate decision to be willing to live and make sacrifices for Jesus and the Gospel, rather than maintain a constant focus upon our own wants and needs. It means being willing to risk whatever comes our way, because we have chosen to be Christ's disciples, to follow him. It means that we run the risk to get into trouble, to offend, because we are not willing to compromise our integrity by hiding our belief in Jesus Christ. It means we are willing to take whatever comes our way when we proclaim being Christian and choose to live a life of sacrificial love.

And it is a decision that we make every day. Each time we are tempted to downplay our Christianity, or to behave in a non-Christian, unloving manner, we are avoiding our Master's call to daily take our cross and follow Him.

III.
Follow Jesus

Have you ever played the game, Follow the Leader? You are to do whatever the leader does. If he crawls, you crawl right behind him. If he runs across the yard, you run right behind him. If he climbs a fence, you climb the fence right behind him.

Jesus calls us to follow him. To where? The first answer is to his teachings, which immediately follow this passage. These are teachings of loving neighbor, loving enemies, put Christ first - even above our families, etc.

The next answer is difficult; we are called to following him all the way to the cross, if necessary. To where? We are called to follow and be obedient to Jesus of Nazareth even unto death! It may be a financial death; it may be a cultural death; it might even be a physical death.

Now that is tough. But here is where the paradox kicks back in. Jesus died for our sins. God raised him from the dead and now Jesus lives forever. Are we willing to die for Jesus? Are we willing to die for him already knowing that after death there is the resurrection?

As we leave here today, we need to meditate and pray on these words of Jesus. Because if we try to preserve our life here - we die, first spiritually, then literally. But if we give our life over to Jesus Christ and let him be the center of our lives, then we live, even if we do lose our material self-centeredness. Amen.

The Rev. Daniel E. Hale, D. Min.