He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that He must be killed and after three days rise again.  He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him.  But when Jesus turned and looked at His disciples, He rebuked Peter. "Get behind me, Satan!" He said. "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."  Then He called the crowd to Him along with His disciples and said: "If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.  For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me and for the gospel will save it.  What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?  Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?  If anyone is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels." (Mark 8:34-38) (NIV)

Today's passage is a hard text.  It's not hard to understand.  We understand the idea that we are to die to self and live for Christ.  We understand that if we want to be a disciple of Christ then we must die to self.  And Jesus has illustrated his meaning quite clearly.

We know the passage in John, Chapter 12 where Jesus speaks of how He must die, and how we are to follow His example saying that unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies it remains only a single seed, but if it dies, it produces many seeds; that is, it produces life.   And then He says, "the man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.  Whoever serves me must follow me." So He makes it plain - if we want to be a follower of His we need to die to self, we must give up our life in order to have life.  I think we understand that.

And Jesus didn't only give us verbal illustrations of the principle but He demonstrated it with His own life.  He went to the cross with the prayer on His lips, "Lord not my will by your will be done." And He did not resist the nails that went into His hands - He did not struggle or raise His voice.  He laid down his life, at the command of God the Father, so that those who believe in Him may have eternal life.

We have no difficulty understanding the idea of dying to self - our difficulty is in accepting it and doing it.  The hard part is allowing oneself to recognize the truth of this word and then following through.

For the idea, the concept, that Jesus speaks about here - of dying to self is so contrary to everything that the world teaches us, that we have absorbed from the world.

Do you know that not to long ago Regis Philbin saved an entire network?  It's true because I heard Kathy Lee say it.  Her friend Regis is the man who saved an the entire ABC network with the success of one show, "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" And of course our whole society tuned in because we all want to be millionaires!

Who wants to be a millionaire?  Do you even have to ask the question?  If you came up to me on the street and asked me right off the top.  Tom, do you want to be a millionaire?  I would say, "Yes".  Think of it - to not have the pressure of mortgage payments, of trying to figure out how we are going to pay for the kids' dental work, of bills that have to be paid - I would love to be a millionaire.  Who wouldn't want to be a millionaire?  This is what the world promotes, this is what the world hungers for.

Jesus' teaching is contrary to what the world teaches.

But really I can't blame the world for my desire.  For the Word of God really makes me put my own life under the microscope.  And I realize as the Word of God probes my life that the feelings, ambitions, the desires, the hungers that I have - come from within myself.  Not only are they external, coming from the world, but they are largely internal, coming from within myself.

As I read the text, I have this little conversation with Jesus as I read it, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." (verse 34)  Well, to tell you the truth, Lord, I'm not all that keen on denying myself.  I eat three meals a day and if I skip one I am miserable.  I must have a shower every morning and if I miss a morning I am miserable and so are those around me.  When I go to a movie I like the big tub of popcorn - with extra butter.

I like those chocolate commercials that tell me that I should "indulge myself".  And right after that is a shampoo commercial that tells me "I'm worth it".  Denying myself?  I'm not good at that.   And then Jesus says, "For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it." (verse 35) Well to tell you the truth, Lord, I'm not all that keen on losing my life.  I love my life.  I'm not all that keen on losing it.

And then, (verse 36) "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?   I'm not sure about that, Lord.  I mean there are a lot of things in this world that I really, really like.  There is, for instance, tractors.  I would love to own a John Deere tractor.  Not just any John Deere - not one of those riding mowers – no, those are just toys.  I mean a real John Deere - the 4000 series, with 48 horse power, fully independent Power Take Off, all wheel brakes, power steering, tilt steering wheel, and four-wheel drive, (the only tractor its size available with an automatic transmission).  I would love to own a John Deere tractor - because "nothing runs like a Deere"?! And then Jesus says, (verse 37) "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world yet lose his soul?  What can a man give in exchange for his soul?" And we think, I can tell him.  Lord, those things in the world, I can see them and some of those things, Lord, are so cool.  Lord, have you ever driven a John Deere tractor?  Well have you?  Do you know how it rides?  There are some things in this world that we may be willing to trade for our soul, so we ask, "Lord, do you know how hard school exams are?  I'm just going to cheat this one time?"  Or, "Lord, have you seen that woman?  Do you know how beautiful she is, and do you know what my home life is like?  Just one night, Lord," or "Lord, have you ever been in the business world?  Do you know how hard it is to jump through all the government regulations, all the demands of my boss, all the deadlines - let me just fudge the figures in my favour just this once."

I don't know what it is for you - a person, or an experience or a thing - whatever it is, you know you want it, but you also know that if you got it, you would forfeit your soul.

The problem is that Jesus is teaching us here something that is diametrically opposed to everything that I think and feel, and what the world teaches me and what the world affirms in me.

There are my feelings and the affirmations I have of those feelings in the world and then there is the teaching of Jesus.

Then, we might wonder if there is some kind of middle ground between the two.  To what extent must I die to self?  The question can be answered I think with another question: can a seed fall to the ground and die partially?  No.  The mortician isn't called because you are half-dead.  No.  The mortician is called because you are dead.  Mr Dixon of Dixon Garland Funeral has never been called to take someone away who is half-dead, he has never buried a half-dead person.  There is no such thing.  A seed cannot be half-dead - there is no middle ground in death.

You may say at this point, so Christ wants me to die to self fully, but I have responsibilities - I have a family, I have taxes to pay, I have people who rely on me at work.  If I die to self can I fulfill those responsibilities?   The truth is, that in fulfilling those responsibilities you may be doing the very thing that is demanded of you from Jesus.

Some years ago, there was a great movie called "Mr. Holland's Opus".  In my mind, it is a wonderful example of a man who dies to self and as a result gives and gains life.  Here is a man whose passion it is to write a symphony.  He has this idea for the music, and he has the talent and the passion to write this magnificent opus of a symphony.  He knows that if he can just write this one symphony he will be a great man in the eyes of the world.  The applause of the world will be his and the wealth of the world will be his.

He has the ability, he has the talent, he just needs the time to write.  But then he falls in love and he must support his wife - what is he to do?  He has this dream - he must die to self - he takes a job as a teacher.  It is less than what he wanted but at least he will have summers off and he can write then.  And then his wife becomes pregnant, and he cannot support them both with his salary so he has to give up his summer and take a job as a driving instructor.  Again he dies to self.

And his life goes on, he puts off his dream, working on his symphony when he can, and then he discovers that his child is deaf and that means private schools.  More and more of his time is demanded for his child and his wife.  And again he must die to self.

But all the way along he helps students in their appreciation of music, he helps this one get a degree, he helps this one overcome their self esteem problem, he helps another become all that he can be, and as he dies to self all the way along you can see he is giving life to this student and that student.

As he dies to self, he gives life.  And in the end of the movie, we see Mr. Holland, old about to retire, and we see his students give him his finished symphony performed.  And we are made to say, "that man truly lived."  His life really counted for something - and he did it by dying to self.

How far do you go in dying to self?   There is no halfway.

It is radical.  It is radical in its demands.  It is not just making a confession of Christ although that is important.  It is daily dying to self and living for Christ.

And it always will be radical because it is so different from what the world teaches, it is so different from what the world offers it is so different from what we want.

And if you practice dying to self the world will see you as radical.  That's exactly what happens in our text.  In verse 31 Jesus explains that He must give His life in suffering and death.   And Peter takes Jesus aside and rebukes Jesus - and you can imagine him saying, "No, no teacher, this is too radical, this isn't the way you should become king, you become king by exercising power and seizing control."

And Jesus in turn has to rebuke Peter and the disciples saying, "Get behind me Satan." He rejects Peter's suggestion.  These words come from Peter's lips but they are the expression of Satan himself.  And the temptation is to follow the way of the world and self.

And Jesus says, "That's diametrically opposed to what God has in mind.  That is the way of the world.  If you want to be my follower, you must deny yourself and take up your cross."

Two questions remain.

First, what's the idea of a cross?  What is the cross?  The cross is not what we sometimes think - it is not a difficult husband, a handicapped child, or arthritis, or poor eyesight or hearing.  It's not cancer, or diabetes or the cold or the flu.  It is not an unhappy marriage.   Our definition of the cross must come from the cross of Christ.  The cross of Christ was an act of submission.  It was an act in which Jesus said, "Not my will, but your will be done."  It is an act of self-denial.

Now the cross for each of us will be different.  I don't know what it is for you.  It may be a friendship that needs to be dropped, or it may be a friendship that needs to be mended.  It may be a bad habit that needs to be abandoned, it may be pride that has to be humbled.  A prejudice that has to be crucified.

God will tell you what it is if you open your mind to him and you heart to him.  But it is so different, isn't it from what the world teaches and what we often desire.

So the final question is this - is it worth it?   Is it worth dying to self?  And it is the very question Jesus asks us, (in the negative) it's a rhetorical question he asks in verse 36: "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world yet forfeit his soul?"   We think about the cost of following Jesus and He asks us to think about the cost of not following Jesus.  We think about the cost of dying to self, and here He asks us to count the cost of "not dying to self." Are you prepared to pay that cost?  Are you prepared to gain the whole world yet forfeit your soul? But self comes to the surface again and says to me, "But the reward has got to be greater than what the world has to offer.  And Jesus makes it plain - His words are very plain: "If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with His holy angels."

Jesus gives us here the opposite.  If the reward for not dying to self is shaming Christ, then the reward for dying to self has got to be the exact opposite to that.  It is a Lord who is well pleased with us.

I would do anything to please my dad.  Some would say that is a psychological problem.  Perhaps.  I probably have a few.  But the truth is, I love my dad.  And I love seeing him smile because of something I've done.  I love hearing him tell me that he is proud of me.  I love knowing that what I am doing is pleasing to him, because I love him.

And I love our Lord, and I know you do too - and when it comes right down to it we have to ask, "Am I going to follow the world or am I going to follow self denial and have the favour of God rest upon me?  It comes right down to a question of "Who do I love more?"

My friends I know the world to be a betrayer, I know the world to be a liar, I know the world to be false.  But I know the Lord to be faithful, to be loving, to be the only one who gave His life for me.  And when it comes right down to it, I love my Lord more than I love the world.

And so with His love in me, with His love washing over me I deny self and I say I will live for Him.

This can be a hard saying.  But as I think of His love, I realize it's not that hard.  For what kind of option is there eternal life - with the God of grace of love and holiness or a John Deere tractor which will rust and corrode and be gone in a short time.

When you realize that - this isn't quite so hard is it?

Copyright MBC and Tom Cullen - May 2002

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