Matthew 16: 24
Take Up the Cross 

The passage before us is both historically and personally interesting. It has been effectually defused both by a fanatical over-literalizing of it, on the one hand, and by an a trivialization of it, on the other. The first mentality insisting that everyone has to literally die for Christ and the second that the cross motif, in the form of architecture, statuary, personal adornment, music, etc. must dominate the sincere Christian's life. And so in the first instance you find people in the 2nd century essentially volunteering for martyrdom and in the middle ages you find crosses, crosses, crosses everywhere on buildings, furniture, and bodies with people clutching them, kissing them, waving them, praying to them, attributing miracles to them.

On the other hand, whatever its meaning, Jesus was apparently always talking about this activity of taking up the cross and was saying in other places as well as here that the serious disciple must take up the cross daily. It appears enough times in the 4 Gospels to suggest that Jesus was frequently talking about the subject.

I. FIRST, THINK ABOUT THE PLACE OF CROSS-BEARING IN THE MATTER OF SALVATION AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.

1. It is erroneous to assume that Jesus was talking about a two level Christianity where you have those who are "merely Christians'' and those who are "disciples'' (sometimes phrased as "carnal Christians'' and "spiritual Christians''). There are only "Christians," some of them living like they ought to live and some of them in need of amending their lives with all due haste. All of us are challenged by the concept of carrying the cross; all of us are, in part, a failure and a success in doing so; all of us are challenged by the Lord Jesus to a more consistent walk of denying self and taking up the cross, of following the Savior.

The N.T. doesn't admit the idea of a two level Christianity but it casts doubt on the faith of those who don't somehow, some way, to some extent fit into this category of cross bearing. ``If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.'' The words ``follow me'' do not refer to the vocational sense in which the 12 disciples were in the entourage of the Lord but refer to Christian faith. We in this room are those who have followed after the Lord Jesus Christ, our dear redeemer and king.

1) You can use this two ways -- destructively or constructively. You can use it to doubt your salvation or to seek the Lord for a growth in your sanctification. You can be like those people in churches who are obviously regenerate people who, nonetheless, are wallowing in uncertainty and spiritual unhappiness and negativism. The prescription for them is not to give up the hope of their salvation but to believe and follow the Lord. Even if the individual did discover by his crossless life that he was not truly a child of God, he would have immediately become one by his casting himself on the mercy of God and intending to take up the cross and follow Jesus. (Faith does not always come in a "Damascus Road'' experience; More often than not it happens when the individual is considering a text such as this one which is before us today.)

2) The other application is to urge you to not mess up this exhortation of the Lord by thinking it has anything to do with tying a cross around your neck or putting it on the wall, dangling it from your ear lobe or pasting it on your car bumper.

Take this seriously. Take it positively -for the good of your Christian life and the glory of God. Take it as an admonition to every one of us no matter where we have grown to in the Christian life. It is for all who are professing Christians.

II. THE MEANING OF BEARING THE CROSS IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.

1. The "cross'' before the death and resurrection of the Lord has an essentially different meaning than it does afterward in the letters of the N.T. In the Gospels a meaning such as the one in our text today is standard. In the letters -- especially of Paul -- it more often is a metaphor for the atonement, the thing that Christ accomplished on the cross. This makes sense historically, because in the earthly lifetime of the Lord he was personally facing the agony of the cross but for the apostles the glorious accomplishment of the atonement overshadowed its cost.

2. The meaning is not limited to the most extreme, literal interpretation of the words -- which might well refer to martyrdom for every follower of the Lord -- and if it were taken even more literally it would refer to martyrdom by crucifixion, a form of execution rarely used in modern times. But every follower of Jesus should consider at least the theoretical possibility of martyrdom -- and surely of facing persecution in a lesser form whether it be by limitation of freedom, humiliation, financial loss or loss of good reputation.

3. Now, this has little meaning to us as modern Americans who have religious freedom, right? In a sense that is true. We are very thankful and humbled by the thought that most of us will probably not have to literally die as martyrs. But do not forget that millions of the Lord's dear people have died as martyrs and at this very hour there are those who are doing so at some place in the world We should pray for them and gain resolve that we will willingly suffer lesser persecution without flinching if it is the will of God to do so. And in the covert forms of persecution let us not be surprised that persecution comes to us who, for the most part, live charmed lives.

4. And let us be sober- remembering that this Christian faith is serious business! We have laid our very lives on the line even if it is only theoretically, that we have done so. This is not the "country club religion'' of charming, beautiful, socially-prominent, influential, rich people but the religion of those who are martyrs for Jesus. Let me tell you that it is not the rich and the powerful, the politicians and bankers, the intellectuals and intelligentsia of Christianity who are going to be prominent in heaven but those who have given their lives -- whether it be literally or effectually -- who will be prominent in heaven. It's not going to be like a First Presbyterian or First Baptist Church when we get there with all that lavish display of comfortable, well-to-do, influential lives. This is going to be an assembly featuring those who are martyrs for Jesus, who bore the cross during their brief tenure upon the earth.

5. On the other hand, let us not be like the would-be martyrs that Eusebius speaks about in his Ecclesiastical History who watched others being martyred and then -- full of enthusiasm-- jumped into the arena to confess Christ -- and eventually denied Christ when the moment came. Don't be presumptuous and essentially volunteer for martyrdom (or a lower form of persecution). Don't make yourself a target. Don't be like those people who seem to be looking for persecution. Just because the Lord tells you to bear the cross doesn't mean you ought to be a patsy for Christ.

6. But the meaning is not exhausted by literal persecution whether that persecution be covert persecution or martyrdom itself. It also concerns self denial. "If any one desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.'' The cross was for Jesus a symbol of utter humiliation and utter abandonment of his own immediate welfare. "He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death on the cross.''

And he offers this challenge to each one of his disciples -- no, not just a challenge but "demand'' -- that they would abandon their short term welfare and adopt God's long term welfare; that they would do God's will and not their own will when the two conflict.

This is tough stuff for Americans. It is double jeopardy because they, more than any other people in history see things in terms of their own personal benefit and they are not, to the slightest degree, inclined to wait till that benefit comes to them. They insist on the most benefit for self and they want that benefit immediately with no waiting period. That is why divorce and serial marriage are rampant; that is why pre-marital sexual relations are the norm; that is why personal debt --even when it is credit card debt at 18% -- is common; that is why living beyond one's means is a way of life. It is because almost no one thinks of denying himself for any reason or person or ideals.

Let me ask you; how often, how many times in significant things this past week have you denied yourself for the sake of Christ? How many times? Hopefully it is a continuing mindset which you have of following him who denied himself for our sakes even in the death on the cross, even to the bearing of the sins of all of his people as he hung there and cried out "My God, My God why hast thou forsaken me?''

Does this have an application of how you relate to your wife, to your children? Does it have an application of how you who are under-age relate to your parents? How you, as a follower of Christ perform on your job? How you do your Christian service when it conflicts with your own convenience and comfort? How you use your financial resources? How you find your niche of involvement in the church, doing things that are downright inconvenient?

7. And then, cross bearing also means making your whole life revolve about the Kingdom of God, about God's business, God's church, about continual service to him. "If any one desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.'' The idea is that giving up one's independence, one's self determination, one's self fulfillment is, as far as the world is concerned, like carrying a cross upon which one will eventually be crucified. 

How strange is American Christianity which is an add-on to a secular lifestyle; which is a helper in funerals, marriage ceremonies and child rearing and is glued on to a totally secular life style. But the cross-bearing position is that every area of life, everything the Christian does is under the Lordship of Christ who bore the cross and calls his disciples to do likewise. From his recreation, to his householding, to his employment, to his family responsibilities, to his cultural interests to his church attendance and involvement he is to demonstrate that the thing that is really unique about him is that he is bearing the cross and is following the dear Lord who bore an earlier and more significant cross that dealt with the sins of perhaps a thousand generation of the Lord's people.

How well I remember in my days of living in Jerusalem the pilgrims, mostly from Catholic countries, who on Fridays carried a huge cross about 12 feet long along the route Jesus is thought to have taken his cross to the site of the crucifixion. It was a colorful sight with a dozen or more people trying to rest the long piece of the cross on their shoulder while tall people made it impossible to do so. Priests, bishops, cardinals, rich, poor, peasants trying to bear the cross. It was colorful and sociologically fascinating however unwise it was in distorting the meaning of this phrase that is before us. But in each day of our lives comes the opportunity that the Lord spoke of here: "If any one desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.'' Look for it this week. Look for it today. Look for the application of this passage, the opportunity to take up your cross, deny yourself and follow him, to lose your life in order to find it.