Christ's Call to the Cross

Good morning. We are walking through the gospel of Luke. If you're new with us, we, uh, mostly, uh, other than when, when, uh, even when, when Ben is preaching, he's walking through first Corinthians. I'll be back in first Corinthians 15, uh, I believe next week. We're walking through Luke, and here we're landing in a significant section of Luke. Now, it's kind of awkward to say one part's significant and implies another part's insignificant. That's not what I'm saying. For us as disciples, this is a very focused chapter. It's on being a disciple. We're taking on a lot of text because I want us to see it all together. We could have kept going. Every gospel has a specific focus where Jesus is teaching and training his disciples specifically. John 14 to 16, Mark 8 through 10. Here, chapter 9 is the focus on making sure the disciples see who Jesus is and understand what he expects of them. A key question that actually drives this text. We see it from Herod and Jesus. Who is Jesus? It's important that we know how to answer that question. And we don't just give some simple glib answer. He was born of a virgin at Christmas. We want to make sure we have a full answer. We need to know what he did. He was born of a virgin. He descended from heaven. He walked a sinless life. He died on the cross. For sinners, he rose again, he ascended the reign of the Father. He's a son of God, the Messiah, the new Adam, the one who provides perfect and absolute redemption. He's God's champion who wins the battle. Who do you say Jesus is? Another question, what do our lives say about Jesus? We see in this text, the need for the confession of Christ and a life conformed to Christ. We're gonna look at those two different parts. What is the right confession of Christ? Who is he? And then how are we to be conformed to him? Text has a lot of parts. We're gonna look at it with three different headings that I believe capture the centrality of the Christian life. Verses one through six, mission. The mission. Verses 7 through 21, confession, the right confession. Then finally, discipleship. What does it mean to be a disciple? If you're new with us, we're gonna be walking through Luke, we're gonna, you wanna open the Bible, if you don't have a Bible, there's one in front of you, in a pew somewhere, or just keep tapping somebody's shoulder, please take that with you. You'll want to be able to follow along with our text. Again, in Luke 9, we want to look at Christ's mission. We're going to consider who Christ is as the Christ and how to be conformed to him. Let's look at verses one to six again. And he called the 12 together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases. And he sent them to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. Well, this is Paul there and recognize he He's given the power and authority to do the job he commissions them to. Go and proclaim the kingdom of God. Go and proclaim. They've been hearing him proclaim the kingdom. They've watched him. They've learned what that means. It's not something they're gonna just come up with on their own. They've been hearing him proclaim it. They've been seeing him heal. And now notice, they're sent out to do the same work. It's important here we recognize the power given to the believer to do the great work of the kingdom. We oftentimes have power that really exceeds our ability. If you're an adult, if you're a teenager, this is really gonna hit home. When you get to sit behind the wheel of a car the first time, the power and authority you have and the danger, I was raised in South Carolina, and at that time in South Carolina, you could get behind the wheel of a car by yourself at the age of 15, and so I did. And five days later, two cars were totaled. That is not the case in South Carolina. I'm not sure if I'm the cause of it or what the cause-effect relationship is, but the power and the inability not to use it But what's amazing here is Christ gives them a clear direction, Christ gives them a clear mission, and he empowers them. It's a foretaste of what's gonna happen in Acts. Jesus is gonna say, wait until the power from on high comes upon you. The Holy Spirit will give you what you need to do the work of proclaiming him at that point. Here, they've been called by Jesus personally, Now they're commissioned by Jesus. They themselves do not have eloquence, ability. They're fishermen, tax collectors. They're not rhetoricians. These are not the greatest communicators that God has called to himself. No, he's called to himself common folk. And as much as they're going to follow him and listen to him, he's going to send them out to do the work. It's an important principle here. When God commissions us to do his work, he gives us the power to do that work. When God calls us to do a work, he's going to give us the power to do it. Our efforts are too little, we're too weak. The calling of proclaiming the kingdom is daunting. What an important principle. If maybe you can imagine being in a job where you're employed and you're supposed to accomplish a task, but you do not get the authority to do it, that'd be frustrating. But here, the clarity, we are all incompetent in our own strength, but God gives us the power. The only call is to be faithful. These disciples were sent out with power to preach. They were sent out and they were effective. Now, we also see here there's two things they're given power to do and they're commissioned to do them. They're called to preach the kingdom and to heal diseases. We have to step back and just ask very quickly, how much is healing tied to the proclamation of the gospel? If you go to Acts, it's pretty closely tied. If you walk through the Gospels, it's pretty closely tied. Jesus is regularly teaching and healing. The next scene, verses 10 to 17, he's teaching and healing. Is there always going to be healing physical sickness when the Gospel is proclaimed? I don't believe we need to tie those two so closely directly together. In Acts and in Jesus's ministry, the healings authenticate the message. When John the Baptist asked, are you the Christ? He points out the blind see, the lame walk, that the healing was a testimony to the power of Jesus who was risen. Notice when we look in the letters to the churches, we regularly see a command to continue to preach the gospel. We do not see that regular command of healing. Now we need to make sense of verse three. Jesus here says, take nothing for your journey. No staff, no bag, no bread, no money. You have two tunics. Whatever house you enter, stay there and from there depart. Wherever they don't receive you, when you leave that town, shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them. There, that last part of shaking off the feet. If someone doesn't receive you, they're not rejecting you by definition. They're rejecting God and the kingdom. But why not a staff, a bag, or bread, Well, it's possible, you know, we could see minimalism according to Jesus. You know, there's that new movement of getting rid of all the extra storage, and I wouldn't be surprised if somebody's already written that book, Be a Minimalist According to Jesus. I don't think that's what's going on here. A little later, he's gonna send them out again, and he's gonna say to take these things. I believe what Jesus is trying to teach them, be dependent on me. Trust my provision. Go do what I have said to do. Know that I have given you the power to do it. You will be provided for. Notice verse six, they went out and they preached the gospel, they healed everyone, verse six, they were successful. And then verse 10, they come back and they tell us what happened, or they tell Jesus what happened, we don't get to hear. I wanna think about what does this mean? We are sent on a mission. In Acts, it's demanded that we go and proclaim the gospel, and in Matthew 28, we're called to go and make disciples, and there's no way to make disciples without teaching everyone, teaching disciples what Jesus has said. A concern I have is that a fear of failure is one of the great causes for Christian unfaithfulness. There's a fear of failure. There's a recognition that this is a weighty matter. This is a great, glorious invitation. Go and proclaim the king who's risen. Go and proclaim he who is most glorious. And there's a great fear of failure. Christian, one of the greatest acts of faith is embracing fully your incompetence and embracing fully Christ. has given you all you need to be faithful. The danger comes when we think we must produce a certain kind of fruit. No, we're called to be faithful and trust God to empower our faithfulness with the fruit he desires. One of the great examples of this is Moses, the great prophet. Moses is the great prophet of the Old Testament. And when he's originally called by God, what does Moses say? but God, I don't speak so good. Then what does God say? He doesn't pat on the back, no, Moses, you got this, you're great. He simply says the words. I'm with you. I'm with you. The mission we have, we go on with confidence, with courage, not because of our own ability, because of the simple promise that Jesus gives us in the Great Commission. I am with you always. Disciples are supposed to be on mission to make disciples. Now let's look at this second, more central, longer part, the confession. It has been interesting to wrestle with verses seven and nine, verses 18 and 20, where Herod the Tetrarch, kind of the governor of the state, His father is Herod the Great, who sought to kill Jesus when he was a two-year-old boy. This is now his son, who is also in great power. He answers to Rome. He is an Israelite, a Jewish man who is beckoning and doing the work of Rome, an evil man. But notice here verse seven, he wants to know what's happening. Now, Herod the Tetrarch heard all about what was happening, was perplexed, he was interested. Because it was said by some that John had been raised from the dead, and by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the prophets of the old had risen. Here it said, John I beheaded, but who is this about whom I hear such things? And he sought to see him. You see, there's a curiosity. When somebody hears of what the kingdom is and who Jesus is, there should be some kind of curiosity. Who is this? Now Herod, remember he was reluctant to behead John the Baptist, but he cut his head off. This is an evil man. This is a man who had been oppressing Israel. But those last words are just so interesting. He sought to see him. He wanted to know more about Jesus and he got his wish. If we were to fast forward to Luke 23, verse eight, it says, let Herod had longed to see Jesus, and since Pilate didn't wanna have to make the decision about Jesus, he sends him on to Herod. So Herod hears him, and he's amazed by the things that are being reported, but verse 11 tells us, he with his troops mocked Jesus, and he sends him back to Pilate to be crucified. Herod is really a warning here. Children who are hearing about Jesus regularly, maybe you're here, you're not a believer, you're interested. Coming and just finding interest in maybe who Jesus is, as if it's like going to the Grand Canyon, it's something you just wanna know more about. It's not going to lead you the life Jesus promises. This is God. He's not something we're just gonna be interested in. He's not something we're just gonna ask some questions about. No, this is God speaking. God doing only what God can do, healing, proclaiming the kingdom, rising from the dead. It's a warning. An interest in Jesus does not benefit you in any way. It's only belief. Belief means we come to Jesus with empty hands. asking from Him only what He gives us. It's not what we demand. It's not us trying to take control. It's empty-handed. We have nothing to offer Jesus but our own sin. And then He takes that sin. He washes it away. He forgives us. He gives us new life. He gives us His Holy Spirit. He gives us a new way of living. Problem is, we oftentimes come to Jesus interested, but with our hands holding tight to what we still think we need. Faith means we come empty-handed to trust him. Well, let's see how trustworthy he is. Verses 10 to 17 tells one of the more famous miracles of Jesus. On their return, that is the apostles now, they've changed their designation. They've gone from the 12 now to the apostles, because they've been sent out. They told him all they have done and he took them and withdrew apart to Bethsaida and the crowds learned it and they followed him and he welcomed them and spoke to them the kingdom of God and cured those who needed healing. Now the day began to wear away and the 12 came and said to Jesus, send the crowd away to go into the surrounding villages and the countryside to find lodging and get provisions for we are here in the desolate place. Let's just pause here. The problem in this story isn't a woman who's been bleeding and sick for 12 years. It's not a child who's about to die. It's not a raging sea. It's out in the middle of nowhere without any food trucks. They're looking around. They're realizing the sun's about to go down. And they're worried there's 5,000 men. And maybe that's just counting the men. Maybe there's more women and children. They're worried the problem of the story that needs resolved is there's not enough provision or lodging. So the disciples say, well, we're out here in the middle of nowhere, let's send them away. And then what Jesus says, I don't know if it's supposed to be as funny as I think it is. You feed them. Kind of a startling response. Why are you trying to send them away? Why are you trying to push the buck away? No, you feed them. Then notice what they say. Well, we only have five loaves and two fish. I'm guessing five loaves, two fish is probably enough to feed 12 to 13 people. I think they probably brought enough for themselves and Jesus, and they don't want to share. They also recognize the food for 12 is not enough for the 5,000. They were just given power to proclaim the gospel, to heal the sick, to cast out demons, and they're worried about food provisions because they're not near lodging. Do we see how our faith just doesn't translate over well to other problems? We have this problem of just being able to see just past your nose. That they can't look back after they've just reported all the things that God did through them. That they can't now think, well, look at all God did for us and through us. This food problem's not that big of a deal. No, he says, go feed them. They point to their reality. We don't have enough food. And then Jesus says, because there's 5,000 men. Verse 14, for they were about 5,000 men, and he said to his disciples, have them sit down in groups of 50 each. And they did so, and had them all sit down. And taking the five loaves and two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing over them. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. And they all ate, and they were all satisfied. and the leftovers they picked up were 12 baskets of broken pieces. I believe there's a challenge here that, first, the disciples, after seeing God's faithfulness and power, they couldn't see how God would be faithful now if he just asked. I believe when Jesus says, you feed them, was expecting them to ask from God, to pray according to the power that's been given to them. And we look at this, this isn't one of the greatest miracles Jesus does. These are just people who were hungry out in the middle of nowhere. They were gonna survive. He just raised a woman from the dead. He's healed the sick. He's cast out demons. He's calmed the waters. Christian, how quickly do we forget the great power and faithfulness of our God when we come to problems like this. I think the one thing we take away from this is what we learn from James 1. He's generous. God is generous. He provides for everything we need and more so, there's 12 baskets of food left over. With a simple prayer, with a simple declaration, he multiplies it all. There's an abundance. God is not stingy. God is not stingy. Christ is able to provide. As we transition, verse 18, it cuts to a new scene. Herod has asked, who is this Jesus? I'm perplexed. Now Jesus, with the disciples, he's zeroing in. We get the same kind of question with the same kind of curiosity. Jesus is asking it a different way. Who do you say that I am? Or who do they say that I am? And they get the same answer. Notice it's John the Baptist, Elijah, maybe the prophet. Same thing they said to Herod. The key point here, Jesus pressed it in. Who? Who do you say I am? The Christ of God. This is a faithful confession. Peter got it right. I think we kind of have to say, kinda. You see, if this was a written test and the question one was simply, who do you say Jesus is? And you wrote Christ the God, you would get full credit. The second question, if it asks what kind of Christ, I think Peter would probably answer wrong. Here's why. The New Testament apostles here, before Christ died and rose again, they seem to think there's only one coming of the Christ. They seem to take all the promises of Christ and boil them down into one coming. We know that there are two comings. Christ came first to fulfill what we read a little while ago, Isaiah 52 and 53. One of the amazing promises and prophecies, if you're not a Christian, you have to really wrestle if you wanna know if you're gonna reject Jesus, how is it the picture of Christ is so clear from the Old Testament, especially Isaiah 52 and 53? He first comes with mercy. humbly to become like us in every way. He first comes to die on the cross, to rise again, to give a promise of victory. The second coming is still to come, when he will judge with absolute righteousness. Today, with the coming of Christ, you can believe. When he comes again, there will not be an invitation to believe, but to give an answer. Here, the profession He is the Christ. It captures that he is the one who was promised who will save us from our sin. He is the one who's promised who will make this world right again. But we know these two things come in two different stages. Notice there he elaborates for them himself because I think he knows they don't quite get it yet. Verse 21, he strictly charged and commanded them to tell no one, saying, notice there's four things, now the Son of Man must do. He must suffer, he must be rejected, he must be killed, and he will be raised. Christ has come to suffer. This is why the Apostles' Creed mentions he suffered under Pontius Pilate. He suffered many things, there were many afflictions. Hebrews tells us he suffered in every way so that he can sympathize with us and be the great priest who walks alongside of us in different suffering. But the key here is that the king of kings submitted himself to a person he put on the throne, Pontius Pilate, so that he would be put to death. He who has all authority submitted to this earthly authority to suffer, to suffer, not for sins he committed. to suffer for our sins. Secondly, he must be rejected. He must be rejected because what we read in the call to worship, Psalm 118 declares this. The stone has come and he's been rejected. They've tripped over him. This is incredible. The creator came to his creation. The God who promised Israel came to Israel and rejected, rejected. This is an opportunity to recognize what our sin is. It's rejecting Him who came to save us. Salvation is receiving Him who came to save us. He came in order to be rejected so that we could receive Him. Third, He was killed. This is the greatest evil of man. killing his creator. The God who breathed life into us, taking his life. He was put to death to be the clear expression of what our rejection and rebellion as God deserve. He died not as a sinner, but for sinners. And then fourthly, he was raised. He is raised to demonstrate he is who he said he was. He was not defeated with death, with the cross. No, death is defeated with his own death. He is now risen. Whenever the first disciples and the women show up at the tomb, they find an angel with the good news. He is not here. Every one of these actions suffering for us, being rejected by us, dying for us, rising again for us. Christ did not do selfishness. Christ came to do these for us. If you're not a Christian, again, the invitation is to come to Jesus, who came to suffer for your sins, who came even though you rejected him to be rejected by his own people, to die in your place, to take your sin upon himself so that it would be forever paid for and therefore forever forgiven if you believe in him, to rise again so he could have a new life. We become empty-handed to Jesus, asking him to give us all he has. Believer, faith means we are not in control. We grow in self-control, let's be very clear there. We grow to have self-control, but we think sometimes we come to Christ empty-handed and then all of a sudden we figure things out and we want to control them ourselves. No, we repent and trust him who came to save us. Our third point, discipleship. Notice here there's a transition again, and he said to all of them. If there's four things he did for us, suffered, rejected, killed, raised, he's now going to ask three things of us. If anyone who would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. This is the most basic ingredients of discipleship. We saw earlier the mission, disciples make disciples by proclaiming Christ, but here to be a disciple, to follow Jesus, to come after him, three things. These are worth your memorizing. What does it mean to deny yourself? This is quite possibly now in an odd way the most counter-cultural thing we might say this morning. The one thing you're supposed to be is you. The one thing you're supposed to deny is anybody who wants you to be something other than the way you feel and the way you desire. You be you, express it, flaunt it, embrace it. Denial. We can choose two ways to deny. We're either gonna deny people who are gonna infringe upon what we think are our rights, or we're gonna deny our own sin. The world tells us to deny anyone who thinks they can tell us to be different. The Bible says I uphold for you a new life and it's only yours if you deny the sin that God points out. Deny yourself, this is the first command. It's really interesting to think about. How are we supposed to discern the things about us that are good that God created Because we're all image bearers, every human being. Every human being has a good conscience at some level. Every human being has gifts and abilities and talents and a personality. Those things are all good. How do you know what you're supposed to deny? Well, that question gets harder because when you look at what scripture says, you're supposed to be denying desires. And the Bible describes those desires as deceitful. Do you understand how difficult that is to look inside and think, how do I figure out which deceitful desires I should deny? How do I know in the deception of my own heart that wants to keep me in sin what to deny? You need wisdom. You need light. You need truth. You need God's word. When we look at scripture, we let it penetrate. We pay close attention as a lamp in a dark place. The lamp, the dark place. recognizing already I have desires that are not becoming of a Christian. I have desires that are deceitful. I have desires that pull me away from God. I'm constantly trying to latch my sinfulness to some kind of weird connection with Christ. If you want to deny yourself, The only way you can know what to deny is if you submit to the Word of God that is the light that helps you see your darkness. It is the truth that untangles your mind and your heart so you know what to set off. They're actually desires and they're deceptive. We cannot be a Christian if we're not denying. Now notice it's not a once for all denial. That there's not a, I prayed a prayer, I repented of a sin, now I'm a Christian. No, there's, it's ongoing. Your sin continues to linger. Sometimes it grows. Sometimes it goes in different directions. But the Christian who's not seeking to deny sin is probably following sin. That's terrifying. The first call is to deny that which is in us that is opposed to Jesus Christ. Well, the second one is harder. Take up your cross daily. This one's hard because we have changed the value and the meaning of the cross because we live in a post-Christian era. If we were to count, there's probably 100 crosses either in the form of T-shirt, jewelry, tattoo. The cross is something we embrace and put on ourselves because it has a certain meaning and it has a good meaning. We've changed the value of it. We've gotta go back before Christ and think about how weird this would have sounded. The cross was something you didn't speak of. The cross was the most painful punishment Rome kept for the worst criminals. It was a way of putting somebody up in the shame, usually without clothes. It was a painful way to die. Yeah, there's nails in your hands and there's nails in your feet, but the whole design was to suffocate somebody publicly. If you had a family member who was crucified, you don't talk about him anymore. It was the greatest way to put shame on somebody. It was the greatest way to put punishment on somebody, and Jesus says, take it up. It only makes sense for disciples after we see what Christ accomplished on the cross and he rose again. What does it mean to take up your cross? It doesn't mean to carry around a physical cross. Some it will mean there's physical torture, sometimes death. Some of our brothers and sisters in Christ have suffered physical torture and death. For some, it will mean being disowned by family, and we've actually had many here, some here, who have been disowned by family. For others, it'll be harassed by the police. We know of other missionary partners we've had in China who have been harassed this past year. For some, it'll be feeling the weight of others looking down upon us. If we're being faithful as a Christian, The cross isn't just regular suffering. The cross represents the persecution we receive because we're being faithful to Christ. He who suffered calls us to this costly discipleship. It's the cross we take. It's a call to faithful perseverance. What's amazing is how quickly we might think You know, this American gospel, the prosperity gospel, it's so dangerous. We just have to acknowledge we all buy it somehow. We all embrace it somehow. We only hear about the Christ who suffered for us to give us life, but when he calls us to suffer, when he calls us to endure, we think this isn't fair. We need to be thinking, how am I training my heart, my mind, myself, my family, my children, to be people who will persevere and take up the cross. I got an email just this morning about a pastor. I'm gonna name him Billy. It's not his real name. He's a pastor in Shanghai. He's one of the churches that Mark has helped plant, and we actually have helped plant in that organization. The police raided his church two weeks ago. Three policemen came in while he was preaching. They stopped. They wanted to take IDs and take pictures. And I praise God for the testimony here. The pastor shares the only thing he knew he needed to keep doing was he needed to finish the sermon. This is where it gets kind of funny. He negotiated with the police that while they take the names of the members of the church, he gets to finish the sermon. Three police officers heard the gospel while taking names of Christians two weeks ago. And the power of God, we're gonna pray, saves them. But here's how this falls into this passage. The only way he knows to keep preaching is that he knows his God. and he's been practicing faithful obedience. His only instinct, I must finish the sermon. I must remain faithful. We only remain faithful and do what is faithful if we're already faithful. Do we understand that? If we do face persecution, the call is to remain faithful. If we're not faithful, we shouldn't think all of a sudden we're gonna just be this great, courageous Christian who's gonna preach to policemen breaking into the service. Praise God, he had already been faithful and was ready. The third, the third ingredient. And this isn't eeny, meeny, miny, moe. These are the three legs of the stool of discipleship. Follow me. This is an imitation game. Kind of like Simon Says. Everybody ever play Simon Says where somebody argues about who Simon is? It's a really annoying game to play. Because you've got to know who has the authority to say what you're supposed to do. The Christian life is knowing Jesus has the authority to tell us what we're supposed to do. Let me turn this around. What an invitation. To follow Jesus means we get to think like Jesus. To follow Jesus means we're transformed in our mind. We get to, we're invited to, we get to think God's thoughts after him. Think about all the things you've meditated upon this past week that's not of Christ. How much better is that than the very Word of God? How much better are your thoughts than what God would invite you to do? Think His own thoughts after Him. Secondly, after we think about Him, we'll have desires like Him. Our loves will be transformed. We'll get to love what's truly lovely rather than those things that are not lovely. And then we get to behave like Him. We get to act like him. We get to be faithful, following him. Bonhoeffer introduced the idea of, we believe in cheap grace, we have cheap discipleship. Again, that's part of that American prosperity gospel. If Christ came to suffer and to die for us as sinners, it means we are called to count the cost. It's costly. That's really what he gets to in verses 24 to 27. What are we trying to hold on to when we come to faith in Christ? What part of a sinful desire, what kind of a sinful activity, what kind of sinful ideas and thoughts are we trying to hold on to when we come to Jesus in faith? We come to Jesus in faith truly and only truly when we come open-handed and simply say, Lord, give me what you will. If we go back to that story of the feeding, I fear we oftentimes wanna hold on and not have open hands believe he's going to give abundantly. Are we holding on to sin and denying Jesus because we do not believe his promises are truly better? Do we think he's stingy? He's generous. He's good. He's only going to call us to what is truly good. We must believe him. The real key question today, Is Jesus the Christ who saved us, who has authority over us, and promises and only gives us what is good, is he worthy? Is he worthy? Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you that your word shines light, provides truth. We thank you, Lord, that it gives life. We pray that as we leave here, we would have helpful conversations about how your word shows us lies, we believe, desires we have that turn us away from you, Lord, help us to see our insecurities, our fears, and not just see them and stare at them, Lord, but to put them up into your sovereignty, to see how you're the God who came to free us, to not tell us we're okay and we're fine as we are, Lord, but to call us to faith, to call us to see that you're with us, you're for us, and then we can walk with you. Lord, call us to be faithful. Help us, Lord, to see the calling to be faithful in our discipleship. Help us, Lord, to see that you are worthy to follow and worthy to proclaim. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.