#73 Lu. 9:23-26  THE SECRET OF SUCCESSFUL LIVING

Introduction:

    In our previous text Jesus informed His disciples that He was not
going to Jerusalem to be crowned as King.  Rather He was going to
suffer and to die.  In our text today He informs His disciples that if
they would continue to follow Him they, too, must be willing to suffer.
He was going to suffer and if they would go with Him, they, too, must
suffer.
    As strange as it may seem, it is one's willingness to sacrifice and
suffer for Jesus that is the secret to living a successful life.  As
strange as it may seem, following Jesus in a life of sacrifice and
suffering is the secret to getting the greatest pleasure and the
greatest treasure out of life.  It is the key to real joy.  It is the
key to experiencing the greatest joy possible both in this life and
also in the life to come.
    Let me point out to you that this text is not intended to show the
lost sinner how to get saved.  It is intended to show the person who is
already saved that if he is going to follow Jesus, he must be willing
to sacrifice his own fleshly selfish desires and let the Lord have His
way with his life.  He must be willing to suffer for Jesus.

I.  Choosing to follow Jesus

    V. 23, "And he said to them all, If any man will come after me..."
Let me point out to you that these men had already chosen to follow
Jesus.  They decided to trust the Christ as they heard John the Baptist
preach in the wilderness of Judea.   They later heard John the Baptist
identify Jesus as the Christ, saying, "Behold the Lamb of God that
taketh away the sin of the world."  Still later the Lord called upon
them to leave their occupation to follow Jesus.  Straightway they had
left their old way of life to become followers of Jesus.
    For about three years now they had followed Jesus.  They had walked
with Him daily.  They sat at His feet and listened to His teachings.
They witnessed the great miracles that He had performed.  They had seen
the crowds which came to hear Him grow from a handful to several
thousand.  It had been a grand and glorious time following Jesus.  But
the grand and glorious time was over.  Things were about to change.  If
they would continue to follow Jesus they were going to have to be
willing to suffer.  Jesus was going to Jerusalem to suffer at the hands
of the Jewish leaders.  If the disciples were going to follow Him and
go with Him as they had done in the past, they must be willing to
suffer at the hands of those same Jewish leaders.  The very people who
would falsely accuse Jesus would falsely accuse them.  The people who
would arrest Jesus would also arrest and imprison some of them.  The
people who would beat Jesus and would have Him beaten by the Romans
would also beat those who would follow Jesus.  The people who would
persecute Jesus would persecute His disciples.  They would imprison
them.  They would take their property.  They would torture them.  They
would burn some of them at the stake.  They would feed some of them to
the lions.  They would crucify some of them.  Some of them would be
crucified upside down.
    In effect, Jesus was saying, "You have got to choose anew whether
or not you want to continue to follow men.  You do not have to go on to
Jerusalem with me if you do not want to go.  But I would have you to
know that if you choose to go, it is going to mean that you will
suffer.

II.  The first requirements of those who chose to follow Jesus

    Then Jesus added in (V. 23), "...let him deny himself..."  This is
just the opposite of what the flesh nature wants to do.  The
unregenerate flesh nature even of a genuinely born again Christian does
not want to deny itself.  Rather the flesh nature wants to gratify
itself. It wants to live for self.  It wants to ut self ahead of all
else.  It wants to make self to be number one.  The flesh nature says,
"I want what I want when I want it no matter what anybody else wants."
    If one is going to deny himself the things that the flesh wants in
order to do the will of God, he is going to have a battle on his hands.
If one is going to do the will of God in spite of his own flesh nature
he is going to have a battle on his hands.  But Jesus said that if
anyone is going to be His follower then he must deny his own flesh
nature along with its desires and do the will of God.
    If one is going to do the will of God in preference to his own will
then he must love God and he must love the Lord Jesus Christ who died
for him.  He must love the Lore more than he loves himself if he is
going to put the will of the Lord above his own desires.
    One can be saved without giving the Lord first place in his life.
He can be saved without putting the Lord's will above his own.  If he
repents of his sin and trusts the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior, he
is saved.  But if he is going to follow Jesus in His manner of living
then he i going to have to put the will of the Lord above his own will.
Just like Jesus said to God the Father, "Not my will, but thine be
done."  Even so the true follower of Jesus is going to have to say,
"Not my will, Lord, but thine be done."

III.  The second requirement of those who choose to follow Jesus

    (V. 23), "...and take up his cross daily, and follow me."  The
cross is a symbol of self denial and suffering.  Jesus said that the
disciple must take self-denial and suffering upon himself just as if he
were literally picking up a wooden crosses and carrying it on his
shoulder.  Keep in mind that a cross was big enough to crucify a man
upon.  It was not a little trinket that was worn about the neck.  It
was a tremendously heavy burden.  Jesus, of course, did not mean that
His disciples must literally pick up a great big wooden cross and carry
it on their shoulders.  He did mean that His disciples must be willing
to take upon himself the great heavy burdens that are symbolized by the
heavy wooden cross.
    Furthermore he must do this daily.  This is a decision, a choice
that must be made daily.  When one trusts in Jesus, he only has to do
some one time.  He only has to get saved one time and that one time
lasts throughout all eternity.  But the Christian cannot decide just
one time that he is going to take up his cross and follow Jesus.  He
must make that decision on a daily basis and he must take up his cross
on a daily basis.  If he has been following Jesus, he must decide daily
whether of not he will continue to do so.  If he has been following
Jesus, he must decide daily whether or not he will continue to do so.
If he has not been following Jesus as he should be, he must decide
whether or not he will start following Him.  He must do this again
every day and sometimes he must make his decision several times a day.

    Each of them had to make up his own mind.  No one of them could
make the decision for the others.  Thank God, they all made the same
decision.  They all took up their crosses and went with Him to
Jerusalem.
    At Jerusalem, there was one of them who would decide that he wanted
out.  He would decide that he had rather have thirty pieces of silver
than to continue to follow Jesus.  He would make a complete break with
Jesus and never follow Jesus any more.
    At the Garden of Gethsemene all the other eleven apostles would
fail to take up their crosses and follow Him.  They would all break and
run.
    The Apostle Peter would follow Jesus to Pilate's court, but the
would follow Him afar off.  Apparently he still would not take up his
cross.  Then once he got to the courtyard and entered therein, Peter
would deny the Lord three times.  He certainly would not be following
the Lord at that time.
    But three days later something would happen to give the disciples
renewed courage and grace.  The Lord Jesus would come forth out of the
grave and appear before them.  They would see His face, hear His voice,
and touch His hand.  They would even be able to reach out their own
hand and thrust it into the hole in His side if they should choose to
do so.  They would not choose to do so, but I will tell you what they
would decide to do.  After they would see the resurrected Lord, they
would choose to daily take up their crosses and follow Jesus.  They
would dedicate the rest of their lives to living by His teachings and
preaching His name to the lost.

IV. A special warning

    V. 24, "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it..."  What
Jesus is saying here is that the person who lives his life for the
purpose of gratifying his own fleshly desires will lose his life.  If
he does not live for the Lord Jesus Christ and does not live for others
about him he will lose his life.  If he lives for the purpose of
getting as much wealth and as much pleasure for himself as he can he
will lose his life.  If he does not live his life to please the Lord,
but lives to please himself he will lose his life.  If he choses not to
do what the Lord would have him to do but does what his own selfish
desires would have him do, he will lose his life.
    Jesus said that whoever lives his life from that kind of motive
will lose his life.  Jesus did not mean that he is going to fall over
dead.  What Jesus did mean is that he is going to lose all that he has
lived for.  He will wind up losing his wealth and losing the joy of
living.  If he does not lose it before he dies, he will leave it behind
all behind when he dies and thus he will lose it.  He will lose all
that he considered worthwhile in life.  If he is unsaved, he will have
no riches or pleasure at all in the next life.  If he is saved, he will
go to heaven and will certainly enjoy being there, but he will have
little or no reward laid up for him in heaven.  The Bible says that he
will be saved as if by the skin of his teeth.

V.  A special promise

    (V. 24), "...but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same
shall save it."  Jesus speaks here of the one who lives his life by
sacrificing his will for he will of the Lord and, if necessary, even
suffering reproach and persecution for the Lord.  Jesus said that this
person has found the secret to successful living.  This person will
find all of the things that really make life worth living.  In this
life he will find the joy that other people try desperately to get and
never have.  In the life to come, he will have rich rewards throughout
eternity.
    V. 25, "For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world,
and lose himself, or be cast away?"  What advantage does any man have
in living a selfish fleshly motivated life?  What advantage does any
man have by seeking his own will rather than the will of the Lord?
What advantage does on gain by seeking his own pleasure and his own
material benefit?  The truth of the matter is that he has no advantage
whatsoever.  Even if he does gain material wealth by his selfishness,
what real advantage does he have?  Those who live for themselves may
have riches in this world, but those riches will only be temporary.
Those who live for the Lord will have riches throughout eternity.
    V. 26, "For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of
him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own
glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels."  Selfishness is
not the only motive that may cause people to neglect to take their
crosses and follow Jesus.  Some neglect to follow Him because they are
ashamed of the Christ and His teachings and His ways.  They prefer the
favor of men.  Jesus said that He, too, would be ashamed of them when
He sits on His throne in glory.  Such a person may trust Jesus and be
saved and go to heaven, but if so, he will be the kind of Christian
that the Lord will be ashamed of.  That person will not get much
reward.

VI.  A special call that I make today

    I will tell you what I am going to do.  I am going to ask every
person here who is unsaved to call on Jesus and ask Jesus to save your
soul.  If you don't you are going to lose everything.  You are going to
spend eternity suffering in the fires of hell.
    I am also going to ask every saved person here to deny yourself and
to live a sacrificial life for Jesus Christ.  I am going to ask you to
sacrifice the pleasure and material gain that you could have for
yourself if you do not live for Jesus.  I am going to ask you to take
up your cross every Sunday morning and follow Jesus.  I am going to ask
you to take up your cross every Sunday night and follow Jesus.  Even on
this Super Bowl Sunday I am going to ask you to give up the pleasure
you might have in staying home and watching the Super Bowl.  I am going
to ask you to take up your cross on Tuesday night and go out on
visitation for Jesus.  I am going to ask you to take up your cross on
Wednesday.  Ia going to ask you ladies to attend the ladies auxiliary
on Wednesday morning and I am going to ask all of you to attend church
on Wednesdays evening.  I am going to ask you to take up your cross
every day of the week Sunday through Saturday.  I am going to ask you
to take up your cross every day of every week every month month after
month and year after year for the rest of your life.
    I can assure you that getting saved and then committing yourself to
the service of the Lord Jesus Christ is the secret to a successful
life.  This is the only way you can get the most out of living.  If you
will get the most out of life in this world and in the world to come
this is the kind of life you must live.

Conclusion:

    Who of you who are lost will come today and trust the Lord Jesus
Christ as your Savior?
    Who of you who are saved will come and present yourself to this
church for membership and for service to the Lord?
    Who of you who are members of this church will commit yourself anew
to the Lord?