Download A BIBLICAL PORTRAIT OF A TRUE DISCIPLE, PART II Matt 16:24

A BIBLICAL PORTRAIT OF A TRUE DISCIPLE,
PART II
Matt 16:24-27
March 13, 2011
INTRODUCTION: Remember, if I say yes to me, I say no to Christ. If I say no to me, I say yes to Christ.
Matthew 16:24-26, “Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone desires to be My disciple, let him deny
himself (disregard, lose sight of, and forget himself and his own interests) and take up his cross and
follow Me (cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying,
also), for whoever is bent on saving his (temporal) life (his comfort and security here) shall lose it (eternal
life); and whoever loses his life (his comfort and security here) for My sake shall find it (life everlasting).
For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life (his blessed life in the
kingdom of God)? Or what would a man give as an exchange for his (blessed) life (in the kingdom of
God)?”
New Amplified Bible
Jesus made it very clear in the Gospels that there was a cross for Christ (Matt 16:21) and there is a cross for
Christians. The believer, as Christ’s disciple, is to “deny himself.” To “deny self” is to subject oneself
entirely to the Lordship and resources of Jesus Christ, in utter rejection of self-will and self-sufficiency. Last
week, I. “The Picture of Discipleship.” .24
“To deny oneself means in every moment of life to say no to self and yes to God. To deny oneself means once,
finally, and for all to dethrone self and to enthrone God. To deny oneself means to obliterate self as the
dominant principle of life, and to make God the ruling principle, more, the ruling passion, of life. The life of
constant self-denial is the life of constant assent to God.”
William Barclay
Self-denial means putting God and His kingdom priorities first.
M.P. Green, “The Meaning of Cross-Bearing” said, “Self-denial should have a visible impact on the nature of
one’s financial commitments and service to church and world, and should lead to the rejection of self-centered
arrogance and pride.”
Allison and Davies in Matthew Commentary said, “Discipleship is a doing of what is right no matter how
irksome the privations, no matter how great the danger.”
♦ To deny yourself basically means to relinquish all claims to your life.
Revelation 12:11, “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony,
and they did not love their lives to the death.”
♦ You renounce your right to run your life.
♦ As a Christian, you do not belong to yourself.
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1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you,
whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify
God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.”
♦ As you deny yourself, you acknowledge Jesus Christ has absolute claim to your life.
♦ Means you no longer live a self-centered life.
♦ As a disciple, you now live by Gal 2:20
“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I
now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
♦ You surrender yourself completely to God.
“deny yourself” – middle voice; imperative
Arthur Pink wrote, “Growth in grace is growth downward; it is the forming of a lower estimate of ourselves; it
is a deepening realization of our nothingness; it is a heartfelt recognition that we are not worthy of the least of
God’s mercies.”
Oswald Chambers, Dec. 30th, “The life Christ plants in us develops its own virtues, not the virtues of Adam, but
of Jesus Christ. Watch how God will wither up your confidence in natural virtues after sanctification, and in
any power you have, until you learn to draw life from the reservoir of the resurrection life of Jesus. Thank God
if you are going through a drying-up experience!
It is the saddest thing to see people in the service of God depending on that which the grace of God never gave
them, depending on what they have by the accident of heredity. No natural love, no natural patience, no
natural purity can ever come up to His demands. But as we bring every bit of our bodily life into harmony with
the new life which God has put in us, He will exhibit in us the virtues that were characteristic of the Lord
Jesus.”
So much for:
A. Daily Decision
Now, note the next challenge:
B. DEVOTED TO DUTY.
“take up his cross” - aorist tense, pick up at once.
Refers to the cross that is suffered because of union with Christ. It speaks of a willingness to identify with
Christ in His rejection, shame, suffering, and death.
Remember, there is the Savior’s Cross and the Believer’s Cross. A cross is an instrument of death.
Jesus was saying, “be prepared to die for Me.”
It means submission to God’s will wherever it may lead. The Christian may have to abandon personal
ambition to serve Christ.
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In Luke 9:23, he added one word, “take up his cross daily.” Note, not Christ’s cross but “his” cross.
“Must Jesus bear the cross alone,
and all the world go free?
No, there’s a cross for everyone,
and there’s a cross for me.”
When Jesus mentioned His cross in Matt 16:21
“From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many
things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.”
Note Peter’s response:
Matthew 16:22-23, “Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, ‘Far be it from
You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!’
But He turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not
mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.’"
“Peter had dared to pull Christ away from His destiny. He would do better to face squarely his own cross
and to bear it after Jesus.”
A.T. Robertson
`
QUESTION: How many “friends” or parents have
attempted to divert God’s purpose for their friend or
child? Anyone seeking to thwart God’s plan was doing
Satan’s work.
GREAT TRUTH: You will never be ready to pick up
“your” cross until you accept His!
How this story would end?
John 21:18-19, “ ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and
walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will
gird you and carry you where you do not wish.’ This He spoke, signifying by what death he would
glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He said to him, ‘Follow Me.’"
“taking up his cross” – is simply to be willing to pay any price for Christ’s sake. It is willingness to
endure reproach, persecution, and even martyrdom for His sake. The person who would “take up his
cross” is one who is willing to start on a death march.
Not every disciple is called on to be martyred, but every disciple is commanded to be willing to be
martyred.
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To come to Jesus Christ is to come to the end of self and sin, and to become as desirous of Christ and His
righteousness that one will make any sacrifice for Him.
FACT: Jesus had already taken up His cross. He did not simply go to the cross, He carried within
Himself, every moment, the cross.
Christ does not call disciples to Himself to make their lives easy and prosperous, but to make them holy and
productive.
Christ knows nothing of a “no-cost” discipleship.
Oswald Chambers, “Where the Battle’s Lost and Won” (For control)
“The battle is lost or won in the secret places of the will before God,
never first in the external world. The Spirit of God apprehends me and I
am obliged to get alone with God and fight the battle out before Him.
Until this is done, I lose every time. The battle may take one minute or a
year, that will depend on me, not on God; but it must be wrestled out
alone before God, and I must resolutely go through the hell of a
renunciation before God. Nothing has any power over the man who has
fought out the battle before God and won there.
If I say, ‘I will wait till I get into the circumstances and then put God to
the test,’ I shall find I cannot. I must get the thing settled between
myself and God in the secret places of my soul where no stranger
intermeddles, and then I can go forth with the certainty that the battle is
won. Lose it there, and calamity and disaster and upset are as sure as
God’s decree. The reason the battle is not won is because I try to win it
in the external world first. Get along with God, fight it out before Him,
settle the matter there once and for all.
In dealing with other people, the line to take is to push them to an issue
of will. That is the way abandonment begins. Every now and again, not
often, but sometimes, God brings us to a point of climax. That is the
Great Divide in the life; from that point we either go towards a more
and more dilatory and useless type of Christian life, or we become more
and more ablaze for the glory of God – My Utmost for His Highest.
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C. DILIGENT DEVOTION.
“follow Me” – a call to loyal obedience. True discipleship is submission to the Lordship of Christ that
becomes a pattern of life. Present tense, keep on following.
1 John 2:6, “He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.”
John 8:31,”Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, you are My
disciples indeed.’”
If you follow Jesus, you receive quite a promise:
John 12:26, “If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also.
If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.”
Most of us wish to follow Him until it interferes with our plans.
It’s hard to talk to many about “dying for Christ” when you are struggling to “live for Christ.”
“OK, I’ll serve You, Jesus, but it’s not going to get in the way of my family; can’t conflict with my job, etc.”
1 Peter 2:21, “For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example,
that you should follow His steps”
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