Discipleship
Luke 9:18-27
18Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?”
19They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life.”
20 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Peter answered, “The Christ[a] of God.”
21Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone. 22And he said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”
23Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. 25What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? 26If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. 27I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.”
After Peter confessed his faith on Jesus as “the Christ of God” (20), Jesus predicted his death & resurrection (22). Then Jesus taught them “discipleship”. See v23.
23Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”
Jesus didn’t entice them for a comfortable, easy-going & happy life. Discipleship is not such an easy way. We just heard Jesus saying about His passion, death & resurrection at v22. Therefore we must put down any preoccupation about discipleship. Do you attend the church just to find friends? Read v23.
What is ‘denying himself’ & ‘taking his cross’ daily?
Denying himself
‘Denying himself’ means denying own thought & emotion. I will speak on this in more details because it is important, easy to forget and easy to misunderstand.
For example, someone hates you just as enemies of Jesus hated Him whom God sent to the earth. We usually will like to hate back. But as Jesus asked to deny self, we got to stop responding our usual way. Such response is from our own thought & hurt emotion.
Taking his cross daily
Jesus was completely a human being as true as he was completely God. He didn’t want such a painful death on the cross[1]. But he took it because it was ‘the cross’ God gave Him so that all sinners can be forgiven when they believe him. When someone hates you, what is your cross? Read Luke 6:27 “But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,” “To love & do good to that person” is the cross we should take. Yes, you may be upset for the hatred but should deny such emotion; otherwise, you would not be able to take the cross. Now we know what it means by denying self & taking the cross.
How about your study? As a student, is the study your cross? If you believe the study being God’s will for your life, yes, it is your cross to take. In this world, studying is the default, but not every student thinks about whether the study is God’s will. Pray & ask God. He will answer you & give you a direction.
What is your cross? Ask God. You will know what it is. Whatever God gives you to do is your cross.
The example of Peter
In Luke 5:4-7[2], Simon, a professional fisherman, denied his thought, experience, knowledge, tiredness, and common sense when Jesus asked him to put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch. And Simon obeyed His Word (took the cross). As a result, Simon experienced the miracle.
See v24.
“For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it”.
Let us meditate on this verse. In previous verses, Jesus was talking about taking the cross. Let’s think about what ‘the cross’ really means? The cross, in fact, is a large wooden structure where a convict is nailed & killed shamefully, painfully & slowly. When your cross is ‘taking care of someone who has hated, malice or anger’, you may want to avoid the cross. Jesus expresses it as “wanting to save one’s life”. If you avoid your cross, that is, if you don’t lose your life,
- You will not be raised to life in glory
In other words, you do not have the guaranteed salvation. Jesus expressed it as “will lose one’s life”. - You still die one day in shame.
“Whoever loses his life for me will save it” (24b)
Here, we can know “losing one’s life” means “taking the cross” (up to death). But this time Jesus added “for me”. This makes it clear that “taking one’s cross” means “following Jesus” itself.
“will save it” means salvation is guaranteed.
See v25.
25What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?
What is “gaining the whole world”? Why did Jesus talk about this? And what is losing one’s very self? As we know, “gaining the whole world” would take a lot of efforts. Through this Word, Jesus made it clear that “gaining the whole world” is not the cross Jesus mentioned. Instead, this is the aspect of “wanting to save one’s life”, which equals to “avoiding one’s cross”. Now it is clear that the cross is not just “hard work”, or “doing lots, lots, lots of works” if the work you do is for gaining the whole world or saving one’s life. One’s cross means more the cross Jesus took! - obeying God’s will. “The real cross” is “following Jesus”.
Losing one’s very self is losing one’s life – no eternal life, no salvation.
Note that here Jesus contrasted the whole world and one’s very self in ownership & possession perspective.
He emphasized that saving one’s very self is more important than gaining the whole world. Life is more important than the entire world.
It is an important fact that Jesus taught this after disciples’ mission trip (Luke 9:1-9) & confession of faith (Luke 9:20). Through mission trip, they exercised divine authority to heal diseases & expel demons. So the authority & the cross both should be acknowledged by us (not only authority!).
See v26. This time Jesus deals with the same issue. If we don’t gospel others because we feel shame, as Jesus said in this verse, He will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. Such shame is utterly unjust because this world is adulterous and sinful (Mark 8:38[3]). Therefore we must be ashamed of this world instead. Do you feel shy because you are the first to speak about Jesus in front of others when no one talks about Jesus at that moment? Is it because talking about Him is not related to ‘earning money’ or ‘passing the exam’ type of stuff that everyone looks forward to doing?
I want to tell the truth & the reality based on His Word & what we know. This world is adulterous & sinful! Therefore we should feel honoured when we represent Him, preach His Word, and testify about Him & what He did for us.
In v27, Jesus says some will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God. Jesus is reminding us of the existence of the kingdom of God. In fact, the disciple John is one of the people who didn’t taste death before seeing the kingdom of God. John wrote the book of revelation because he saw the kingdom of God.
Now I review the whole paragraph & summarize the points and conclude as below.
Imagine the situation that Jesus was in. If we are in such a life-threatening situation, it may shake us. Then what Jesus said in this paragraph lead us to keep our faith. Amen.
[1] Mark 14:36 36"Abba, Father," he said, "everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will."
[2] Luke 5:4-7 4When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch."
5Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets."
6When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. 7So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.
[3] Mark 8:38 38If 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."
