THE CROSS AND THE CROWN

“Summoning the crowd along with His disciples, He said to them, ‘If anyone wants to be My follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.’” (Mark 8:34 HCSB)

The Bible is filled with paradoxes: the way up is down; the way to gain is to give; the way to be great is to serve; the way to live is to die—to name a few.  This is God’s way and we see it in our text.  For Jesus, there would first be the cross and then the crown; agony and then glory; humiliation before exaltation.  He would be the Lamb of God in submission before He would be the Lion of Judah in sovereignty! 

It is a paradox because it runs opposite to our thinking.  Peter didn’t grasp it.

“Then He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, be killed, and rise after three days.  He was openly talking about this.  So Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him.  But turning around and looking at His disciples, He rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind Me, Satan, because you’re not thinking about God’s concerns, but man’s!’”  (Mark 8:31-33)

Peter’s kind of thinking is demonic in origination and contradicts the truth that is Divine in inspiration.  Rejecting our ways and resigning to God’s ways is the way of salvation—and that’s repentance.  Repentance is literally “a change of mind.”  It is contrary to the carnal mind. 

When one submits to God’s way, we become so radical in our values and actions that the world sees us as upside down!

“When they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city officials, shouting, ‘These men who have turned the world upside down have come here too…’” (Acts 17:6).

Actually, the Gospel puts things right side up!  But, to those who are standing on their heads, it seems we are turning it upside down.  That is the sinful world’s perverse perspective.

May God’s Spirit teach us to embrace the Gospel!  This is fundamental to knowing God and being a true follower of Christ.

Notice first A DRAWING THAT LEADS TO DESIRE.

“Summoning the crowd along with His disciples, He said to them, ‘If anyone wants to be My follower…’” (v.34a).

Observe that their coming is in response to His calling.  He had drawn them before He would speak of their desire for Him.  Jesus had reached out and they had responded. 

We speak of “finding Jesus” and I understand that.  It is true—in a sense.  But the first thing is that Jesus finds us.  We are sheep that have gone astray—hopelessly, helplessly lost.  Then the Good Shepherd seeks us.  He calls us to Himself. 

This is sovereign grace.  Unless He calls, we will not come.  You may say, “Well, what if I want to be saved and He hasn’t called?” Don’t you see—that is impossible?  If you have the desire, it means He is drawing.  If you want to come, it is certain that he has called!  Still, His call is not coercive.  We must respond in faith.

After that there is A DESIRE THAT LEADS TO DENIAL.

“‘If anyone wants to be My follower, he must deny himself’” (v.34b).

Where there is genuine desire for Christ—to follow Him—then there will be a denial of self.  Now, some align themselves with the church and take the name, “Christian” because their desire is not for Christ but for a fire insurance policy. 

Make no mistake, this is a Biblical incentive and a merciful provision in salvation—heaven gained and hell shunned.  This may even be the basic reason we are attentive to the Gospel initially.  But, we must come to grips with the fact that the road to heaven and away from hell is the path of forsaking sin and following the Savior.  Those are divergent paths.  It is impossible to travel opposite directions simultaneously.

Those who only want some eternal benefit, but with no earthly implications, show they understand nothing of the nature of sin and demands of the Gospel.  They do not want to deny self, but to indulge self.  They want the world today and heaven tomorrow.  But Scripture is clear: “No one can be a slave of two masters.”  That’s what  Jesus said in Matthew 6:24.

John pits these two great loves—these two objects of our affection—against one another in his first epistle.  Weigh his words carefully:

“Do not love the world or the things that belong to the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him.  For everything that belongs to the world — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s lifestyle — is not from the Father, but is from the world.  And the world with its lust is passing away, but the one who does God’s will remains forever.” (1 John 2:15-17)

Conversion means we’ve turned from the flesh.  While we are not yet all we should be, we are no longer what we once were.

“Don’t you know that the unjust will not inherit God’s kingdom?   Do not be deceived: No sexually immoral people, idolaters, adulterers, or any kind of homosexual, no thieves, greedy people, drunkards, verbally abusive people, or swindlers will inherit God’s kingdom.  And some of you used to be like this.  But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Cor.6:9-11)

Then we see A DENIAL THAT LEADS TO DEATH.

“‘he must deny himself, take up his cross …’”  (v.34c)

If you think that following Christ means a highway that is like a limo ride on the interstate under a bright, blue sky—without a pothole—then you don’t understand what it means to follow Jesus, at all.  Following His footsteps is to take the bloody trail leading to Calvary. 

The cross stands at the heart of the Christian experience.  This is one of those paradoxes—that to live fully, we must die freely. 

It is commemorated in communion and celebrated in baptism.  The two ordinances of the church are powerful proclamations of this truth.  In the Lord’s Supper, we are professing our participation in Christ’s sacrifice, as we eat the bread and drink the cup which symbolize His death.  In water baptism, we picture our union with Him in His death, burial and resurrection—dead to sin and alive to God.

The New Testament says repeatedly that we are to die to sin that we might live to God.  “Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” (Gal.5:24)  In the context, Paul had just been contrasting the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit. 

“Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar.  I tell you about these things in advance — as I told you before — that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control.  Against such things there is no law.” (Gal.5:19-23)

Which one of those characterizes your life?  A tree is known by its fruit.  Our faith is proven by our works.  The Holy Spirit within produces a spirit of holiness without.

Next we find A DEATH THAT LEADS TO DEVOTION.

“‘take up his cross, and follow Me.’”  (v.34d)  

We have touched on this, but let me drive home the truth.  Christianity is Christ.  It is about Him and having a personal relationship with Him. 

It isn’t merely believing a set of theological propositions about Him, though we certainly must.  But, if that were enough, then the Devil would be redeemed for he is orthodox in that kind of belief.  He knows the truth, but doesn’t surrender to it.

Christianity isn’t about keeping a set of rules—or the self-righteous Pharisees would have been saved.  Yet, Jesus branded them as hypocrites that were the spawn of hell!

Our conduct will reflect our faith—if it is real—but external conduct isn’t sufficient.  It is about Christ in the life—Christ who is our life.  It is a relationship with Him. 

How do we know that we have it?  Christ said here that we follow Him!  We love Him and long to be with Him and that causes us to become more and more like Him! 

Furthermore, there is A DEVOTION THAT LEADS TO DESTINY.

“For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of Me and the gospel will save it.  For what does it benefit a man to gain the whole world yet lose his life?  What can a man give in exchange for his life?” (v.35-37) 

Why would we want to follow Christ—when it is the pathway of self-denial that takes us to our Calvary?  Because—as the old hymn puts it—“The way of the cross leads home!” 

In God’s kingdom, the way to save your life is to surrender your life.  We pour ourselves out in a sacrificial gift of love—love for God and man—or as Jesus frames it here, “because of Me and the gospel” (v.35).

Weigh the significant questions of Jesus in verses thirty six and thirty seven.  Is there benefit to having a lot of stuff and losing your soul?  How valuable is your soul?

It is reasonable to conclude that whatever it costs to follow Christ, it costs infinitely more not to do so!  Then, no matter the price, the prize is of incalculable worth in following Him.

There is something else to note: A DESTINY THAT LEADS TO DECLARATION.

“For whoever is ashamed of Me and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” (v.38) 

Neutrality is impossible.  We shrink from Christ or stand for Him.  We speak up or clam up. 

It has never been easy to resist the tide of popular opinion or sail into the wind of worldly thinking.  It will not be for us.  Standing up and speaking up is done in a culture that loathes Christ!  It is an “adulterous and sinful generation.” 

But, we dare not be ashamed of Him, lest He be of us! Do we know Him, then, let us never deny Him.  Would we want Him to deny us with these most horrifying words, “I never knew you!” (Matt.7:23)

Our Lord’s lessons here culminate with A DECLARATION THAT LEADS TO DELIGHT.

“‘the glory of His Father with the holy angels.’”  (v.38b) 

Jesus went to the cross, the writer of Hebrews states, “for the joy that lay before Him.”  (Heb.12:2)  We are exhorted in His example to look beyond the cross to the crown—that Mt. Calvary leads to Mt. Zion and Golgotha is prerequisite for glory!  The hostility of sinners surrounding us will in heaven be forgotten among the happiness of saints that envelops us.

Paul said, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us.” (Rom.8:18)

Someday—maybe today—we’ll exchange the cross for a crown!