He who desires to come after me
Deny yourself, pick up your cross, and follow me • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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My prayer that you may you may see the king. Risen and Reigning that you may serve Him with all that you are. No reservations. No securities. Not looking back to what was lost but forward to what has been gained.
This is powerful words coming forth out of Jesus’ mouth. Who desires to come after me?
What is so great about Jesus and coming after Him?
This great paradox was being revealed to Jesus inner circle of disciples as he was training them to what it looks like to be Christ followers as they testified that He is the Christ.
In the context of this verse, Jesus is revealed to his disciples as “Christ, the son of the living God.”
The throne is revealed. THe king is a peasant. The king in rags.
Not time to reveal identity just yet.
After his resurrection he would send them out to tell the world who he was.
This Christ as revealed begins to talk about his kingdom that is being built and the momentum from this kingdom shall not be hinder by evil forces or death itself. That even death will not extinct my kingdom.
There have been alot of kingdoms that have risen and fallen with the death of great leaders. But with Christ kingdom it is different than all others. For it surpasses even death.
Then Jesus follows peters confession with the foretelling of His death. That he needs to go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the religious leaders and even be put to death, to raise to life on the third day.
What Jesus the son of God must be put to death by mans hands? what for?
Now we are going to start getting into the meat of the gospel that we find in this text anyone that desires to come after me (the path of Gods people, the way of life) must deny himself, pick up his cross, and follow me.
You first must understand in depth who this Jesus is and why it is so important that we follow after him.
So as peter testified Jesus is the Christ Son of the Living God. Lets unpack this.
First lets start with man.
The Bible talks about
When you truly understand this paradox you will become a force to be reckoned with.
When with gratitude you serve that which brings freedom to the least of these.
This will fill your sails with purpose
Your dreams with hope
Your life with a fire that no man can put out
You may be saying what in the world are you talking about Jesse? Whats this darkness you are talking about?
For you to truly understand this truth that “its not about me” you need to understand why its not and who it is, then, about?
We talked about our culture in the beginning but what about us? Those of us in this room.
To get to the good news of the profound truth we are talking about here we must know some hard truths about ourselves.
NKJVAs it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.”
NKJVfor all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Your telling me that there is not one who comes forth from the womb that does good? That naturally loves God?
Nope theres not.
We are told that we all come forth from the womb speaking lies.
Have you ever had to be taught to lie?Nope.
We by nature love to paint ourselves in better light. From birth it wars against us.
WE ALL WALK IN DARKNESS. this means that we live a life alienated from God who created us. Seeking to please ourselves rather than Him and repeating the bitter fruit of a life apart from Him.
Any hunters in the room?
Have you ever tried to walk through the woods on a cloudy night without a flash light?
]your tripping over fallen trees, hearing spooky things you can never for sure know what it is.You are confused on where you are at.
This is man without God.
When it comes to our homes.
When it comes to our parents we don’t honor but rather rebel.
When it comes to marriage We say God marriage is no longer necessary. That is cave man stuff.
When it comes to purity we love the filth of pornagraphy
When it comes to our sexuality its now how i feel begins to identify my gender and and my desires rather than the truth of Gods word.
We say God marriage is no longer necessary. That is cave man stuff.When it comes to our sexuality its now how i feel begins to identify my gender and and my desires rather than the truth of Gods word.When it comes to love our culture has made it momentary and circumstantial God makes it sacrificial and covenantal.When it comes to our lives our world says do what feels good, Gods says deny the flesh pick up your cross and follow me.
God created us He formed us in our mothers womb, knows the number of hairs on our head, knows beginning to end, and He says walk in my ways, look to my word that will be a light unto your path. We say no thanks.
When it comes to love our culture has made it momentary and circumstantial God makes it sacrificial and covenantal.
When it comes to our lives our world says do what feels good, Gods says deny the flesh pick up your cross and follow me.
God created us He formed us in our mothers womb, knows the number of hairs on our head, knows beginning to end, and He says walk in my ways, look to my word that will be a light unto your path.
We say no thanks.
NKJV“The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings.
uh oh we are in trouble. Who then can enter heaven if we are all born wicked and running from God and cannot even trust our hearts?
This is the same question that David asks in psalms 24.
NKJVWho may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, Nor sworn deceitfully.
If you got clean hands and a pure heart.
If you have never hated your brother in heart
If you have never had a lustful thought
If you have never told a lieIf you have never stolen
If you have never gossiped
if you have always honored your parents
Never worshiped anything above God
Then your good to go.
But IF your like me then you are doomed.
Everything we have done that is against God has stained our hands. Staining so deep that dawn soap cannot clean.
Even our best works are as filthy rags.
This means that even my best deeds are not enough for me to enter heaven. None of us by birth, by family lineage, or by good works will be able to enter into heaven.
We need a divine intervention.
This is the mess God our creator saw when He looked upon the earth before the foundations were laid and had a plan all along.
NKJVFor God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
For God so Loved. Not you so loved God.
can just picture John reflecting this truth when it is revealed that this Jesus is God in flesh…the king.
What an amazing picture of LOVE.
It is never how great my faith and belief but rather how great is His mercy and His grace.What an amazing picture of LOVE.
Who are we that you are so mindful of us?
Why is this so important for us to see? That God pursues?
Because you can fool me, you can fool drew, you can fool your parents but you cannot fool God. He knows everything about you. Every thought and every deed that you have done in dark. He knows it all. Yet his pursuit for you was not based upon your goodness in his eyes but despite your wicked works, He comes.
That means no one is beyond the renewing power of God.
It gets better.
When the Bible describes Jesus as the Son of God it doesn’t deal with order of creation but rather place of authority.
The firstborn always held the place of honor and authority in the family.
So this Jesus we are talking about is not a mere created being but is God himself.
And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.
For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.
And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.
Colossians
Colossians 1:15-
So in essence you could read as God so loved the world that He gave himself, that whoever should believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
God in His heavenly throne, left that throne, to redeem, to pay the price, the bounty that was upon our heads so that we may have life.
It talks of God that nations are but just a drop in a bucket to God. That he spreads the heavens like a curtain. HE breathes the stars into motion. He knows the number of hairs on your head, he has bottled your tears. yet
That which is running from God He pursued that they may be made right with Him.
It is by the power of Jesus that my life consist. That my life was created. Yet He laid his life down that i may have life. He paid the price that i could not pay.
For He has brought us life to all that will have faith in Christ and not in works of Rightousness.
The sad thing about man is that we are like cockroaches. We do not like our sins exposed. When the light hits we scatter and pretend like nothing happened.
NKJVAnd this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”
We are so deceived its like having an open wound that we desired healed but listen to our buddies that say healing is found by pouring dirt in it and rubbing it with sand paper. only brings greater agony. Listen to the great physician Jesus Christ who gave all.
But know in our sin we rest in condemnation already.
It is appointed once for man to die and then the judgment.
We will be rightly judged not upon what man sees but what God sees. This means our hearts will be on open display, with every thought, every word, and every deed to be judge justly. And it is upon one offense we are held guilty because God is a good judge.
Anything we hold to in our trial other than the payment paid by Christ will come up short and be insufficient.
But for those who come before our holy creator by faith broken over our sin, and cry out to Him for the life He has will be saved.
It doesn’t matter your skin color, your age, your economical status.
But will you trust in the creator who promises you life.
If Anyone desires to come after me your creator to the path of life and hope, you must consider the cost. It will cost you everything. You must first deny yourself, pick up your cross, and follow me.
Its when i lose everything to gain christ, what I find is I in all actuality lost nothing and gained everything. For now i can clearly see what was left behind and how worthless it really was.
A complete self emptying. What a blessed transaction. I trade death for life.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”