Take up Thy Cross
In Luke Chapter 9 Jesus continued his training of the twelves disciples. He reminded them twice in this passage that he would go to Jerusalem to be beaten and tortured and then he would have to die. Jesus was dedicated to his mission to draw men unto him to have fellowship with him. Ever since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, fellowship was broken between God and Man. His mission was to redeem mankind by paying the price for sins and the sin nature that we inherited from Adam. We’ve been redeemed by Jesus’ payment for our debt of sin through the sacrifice of his innocent blood. We have been bought with a price. Because of our righteousness in him, those born again of the spirit have been reconciled to God in fellowship with our Lord Jesus Christ.
After Adam’s fall, God asked Adam, “why were you hiding from me?” Adam said, “because I was naked and ashamed.” God said to Adam, “Who told you that you were naked?” The devil has been reminding us of our shame and our shortcomings our ever since. However, the wisdom from above is learning to see life from God’s point of view, not satan’s.
Jesus came to reconcile man back to God… to restore the broken fellowship between God and man. In a fallen world, if we look around us, if we look at others or at the man in the mirror, we’ll be depressed. However, when we look to him we’ll be blessed. The devil will try to get you to “eat your words.” He’ll accuse us of being hypocrites when we speak the Word, because the Word is perfect, but in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.
When the crisis comes, God expects his men to be the reliable ones…ones in whom his testimony is true and faithful. When you become a Christian, the call to worship is “the Lord your God is one God.” We shall worship him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength… We shall worship him with our very essence…Christ in us the hope of glory.
Our strength and our perfection is not in our flesh, but only in his gift of Holy Spirit… The spirit of Christ in us . In verse 23 of Luke 9 Jesus said, “if any man desires to be my disciple, let him take up his cross and follow me.” The five thousand men in the crowd had just been fed. They were in awe of Jesus because he had performed a miracle by feeding the multitude with five loaves of bread and two fish. Jesus told his twelve disciples, if you want to be my disciplined followers, you need to forsake yourselves, take up your cross, and follow me. Jesus said two things are required to follow him. The first is to give up the rights to your self….to deny yourself. The second is to take up your cross daily. The cross is the symbol of death, shame, ridicule, and mocking…for cursed is anyone who hangs on a cross. The people understood that the cross was a symbol of a shameful death for sin and guilt and iniquity. Before we can follow him, we must crucify our flesh. Jesus said, For whosoever shall save his life shall loose it. But whosoever shall loose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.
In Chronicles, the there are four prerequisites to hear from heaven: to humble yourself, to forsake your wicked ways, to pray, and to seek his face. When Jesus was hanging on the cross, they taunted him saying, if you’re the son of God, walk off of the cross and save yourself. He could have called 72,000 angels from heaven, but he didn’t. It wasn’t the nails that kept him hanging on the cross. Rather, it was the love that he had for us…for he who knew no sin was made the perfect sin sacrifice on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in him.
In Luke 9, Jesus needed to separate the sheep from the goats. A true follower is not one who is looking for self aggrandizement or self actualization. The true followers are those who take up their cross daily and follow him. One man approached Jesus and said, “Lord, I’ll follow you where ever you go.” Jesus responded, “Foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head.” Jesus said to another man, “Follow me.” The man replied, “First I have to go bury my father.” In Luke 14, Jesus said, “If you do not hate your father and your mother, your wife and children, your sister and brother, and even your own life, you cannot be my disciple.” Jesus said that compared to loving me and putting me first in your life, whatever competes with your devotion to me, then you need to “hate” that thing in comparison to your love for me. You can’t look back while plowing or you cannot plow a straight furrow. If you look back, you’ll fall into the ditch. As we carry out our great commission as salt of the earth and as the children of light, our lord’s command is “focus steadfastly upon me.” Our faith will be tested to discover what’s really important. What is it that you put above your love for the lord? God will put his hand on our family for a reason. God teaches us that He is merciful even when he doesn’t give us what we think we want.
When the doctors told Pete in the father’s waiting room, “we’re loosing the baby’s heartbeat,” Pete went to God in prayer. God said to Pete, “how much control do you have over this situation? “No matter the outcome of this trial, will you still dedicate your life to love and serve me?” God was teaching Pete that the one true thing is to dedicate your life to your Lord. The first and great commandment is “thou shalt have no other gods between your face and my face.” Not my will, but thine be done.
When Peter preached the first sermon to the Church on the day of Pentecost, the crowd noticed that Peter was not an educated man, but that he had been with Jesus. The power we have is in proximity with him.
A few weeks ago Pete and his beloved wife Susan went to their family doctor to get an MRI to address her recent episodes of mild dementia and memory loss. Last Tuesday, the doctor said, “Susan you have a brain tumor.” The follow up appointment next week is with a neurologist to determine the prognosis and course of treatment. This trial is an opportunity to test what is really important. In this world, all relationships end in pain and disappointment. However, with Jesus Christ, all relationships end in the hope of eternal life with our Lord. Whatever happens in this life, despite the pathologist’s reports, God is merciful for all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.
In this passage in Luke chapter 9, Jesus prepared his true disciples how to be more than conquerors. We need to kill the casual Christian inside of us. For I was crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life that I now live I life by the faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
May God richly bless you!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael