Take Up Thy Cross – Part 1

In Luke 9:22-24, Jesus said to them all, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.”

 

This week, Michael writes that in Luke Chapter 9 Jesus continued his training of the twelve disciples. He reminded them twice in this passage that he would go to Jerusalem to be beaten and tortured and then he would have to die. Jesus was dedicated to His mission to draw men and women unto Him to have fellowship with Him. Ever since the fall of mankind in the Garden of Eden, fellowship was broken between God and Man. His mission was to redeem mankind by paying the price for all sins, including the sin nature that we inherited from Adam. Born again Believers been redeemed by Jesus’ payment for our debt of sin through the sacrifice of His innocent blood. We have been bought with a price. Because of our righteousness in Him, those born again of the Spirit have been reconciled to God in fellowship with our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

After Adam’s fall, God asked Adam, “why were you hiding from me?” Adam said, “because I was naked and ashamed.” God said to Adam, “Who told you that you were naked?” The devil has been reminding us of our guilt, shame and shortcomings ever since. However, the wisdom from above is learning to see life from God’s point of view, not Satan’s. Jesus came to reconcile mankind back to God … to restore the broken fellowship between God and man. In a fallen world, if we look around us, if we look at others or at the man in the mirror, we’ll be depressed. However, when we look to Jesus, we’ll be blessed. The devil will try to get you to “eat your words.” He’ll accuse us of being hypocrites when we speak the Word of God because the Word is perfect, but in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. When the crisis comes, God expects his people to be the reliable ones … ones in whom His testimony is true and faithful. When you become a Christian, the call to worship is “the Lord, your God is one God.” We shall worship Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength … we shall worship hHm with our very essence. Christ in us the hope of glory. Our strength and our perfection is not in our flesh, but only in His gift of Holy Spirit in us. In verse 23 of Luke 9 Jesus said, “if any man desires to be my disciple, let him take up his cross and follow me.”

 

Jesus told his twelve disciples, if you want to be my disciplined followers, you need to forsake yourselves, take up your cross, and follow me. Jesus said two things are required to follow him. The first is to give up the rights to yourself … to deny yourself. The second is to take up your cross daily. The cross is the symbol of death, shame, ridicule, and mocking … for cursed is anyone who hangs on a cross. The people understood that the cross was a symbol of a shameful death for sin, guilt and iniquity. Before we can follow Him, we must crucify our sinful flesh desires. Jesus said, “For whosoever shall save his life shall loose it. But whosoever shall loose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.”

Let's continue Michael's message on "taking up your cross" in the next post.                               In Christ, Brian