Discipleship Is Taking Up Your Cross Daily. EXPOSITION ON THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE study #78 (Luke 9:23-25)

Our focus for this study just moves us one verse past where we left off in our last study. We are taking these points one at a time that shows us what following Christ or true discipleship actually looks like and what it means. Please note that none of these are separate from the other. They all interconnected and they all are a part of a whole. You can’t just say I want to follow Jesus without having self denial and you can not say that I’m willing to deny self but I will do it in my own time or when it is convenient for me to do so. None of the Christian life should be lived out for selfish desires and wants. Being a Christian is much different than what we see in the majority of western Christianity. Much of what we see in western Christianity is a pagan and secular form of Christianity that promotes a life of prosperity, ease of life, peace and continuous fulfillment of the great things of life.

This claim and proclamation is in opposition to what Jesus says in our text for this study. In fact what we studied on last time destroys the notion that God wants you to just believe and He will prosper you. He told us firmly and directly that if you want to go after Jesus, that is if you want to be a Christian then you must know that this will require you to first deny self. Denial of self is to look not into fulfilling your dreams of life or look to fulfill some personal agenda but in a submission to God in everything. Becoming a Christian is given by grace through faith in Christ but being a Christian means you will live a life of self denial. That was just the first thing that Jesus tells the crowd and His disciples. Now we will look at what Jesus says in the next part of this verse in our first point.

1.Taking up our cross in discipleship.
Look with me at Luke 9:23a-b And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily.

Our focus is on the second part of this verse that says that if we desire to go with Christ, if we desire to truly follow Christ then we must take up our cross daily. I think first we must understand what taking up the cross actually means and what it does not mean. This statement is not meant to point to you bearing the burdens of life. Taking up the cross does not mean that we look at the difficulties of life as our cross that we must carry. People look at bad relationships, loss of a job, being robbed or having rebellious children as the cross that they must carry but that is not what this means.

The cross for us is a symbol of grace, mercy, love and victory. I wear a necklace that my wife gave me that has a cross on it. I proudly wear that cross as a symbol of God’s mercy poured out on me but that was not the case for what Jesus meant when He spoke these words. The cross in Jesus’ time was a symbol of disgrace, pain and ultimately death. Death was what was in the mind of those that heard about the cross.

This thought would take the idea of self denial to the next step of our thinking. Not only would you have to deny self of pleasures and sensual desires but you would also have to realize that disgrace, pain and possible death could be a reality. To take up the cross is to realize that you are not living for yourself but for Christ. Your own life is not your own anymore. Your own life is not important in respect to living for selfish desires and wants. Paul says it like this in Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ, and 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 up for me. 

He says again in Philippians 3:7-9 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ More than that, I count all things to be loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own which is from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God upon faith.

Taking up the cross goes beyond just living in some form of righteousness but along with that takes us to realize that we will encounter opposition when we live that way in the culture. Many people look at the difficulties of life as cross bearing but even non-Christians face those things. What sets a Christian apart from society is the way we live in the society. That counter culture way of living will be what brings us to a place of suffering all for the cost of following Christ. It’s not enough to deprive yourself of the good things of life if you are just doing it to do it or if while doing it you find yourself in a state of misery and despair.

Living for Christ in the face of losing friends, losing relationships with family or children, losing your job or even losing your life because of your belief in God and the way you live your life for God is what true discipleship is. Jesus says in Luke 14:26-27 “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. ²⁷ Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.

The fact is many people that are truly following Christ will not physically lose their life because of their faith but there must be the willingness and the expectation of that possibility when we live for Christ. This goes along with the act of self denial that we looked at in Luke 9:24 that says For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.

You can not take up your cross if you do not have self denial and self abasement. Discipleship requires an attitude of self denial and to take up the cross daily. I love that Luke says that this is a daily practice in our lives. We do not see that we decide one day to take up the cross and them just leave it there but rather that we carry this cross throughout our lives everyday. Being a Christ follower is not something we do in little sections of our life but in everything we do, everyday and all throughout our day.

We have looked at how discipleship is taking up our cross and now we will move into a little more detail of how that shows up in our life as we count the cost of being committed to doing this daily in our next point.

2.Total commitment in discipleship.
Look with me at Luke 9:25 that says For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself?

Many people live their life as if there is no God but then profess to be a Christian. How come this happens? Well I can only explain it as the Bible explains it and that is these people are not willing to give up their own life. They want the world, they want the world’s movies, shows, fashion, music, language, desires, entertainment and views. They want the benefits of eternal life without the cost. Please do not misunderstand me because I know it was Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection that paid the penalty for our sins. It is His sacrifice that gives to us eternal life but it does cost something for those that receive it. You do not pay the price for salvation but their will be an immediate change in direction in your life when you are saved because of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It is this change that is the cost and this cost is not something that is burdensome to the one that has received it.

1 John 5:1-4 says Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the One who gives new birth loves also the one who has been born of Him. ² By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and do His commandments. ³ For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. ⁴ For everything that has been born of God overcomes the world; and this is the overcoming that has overcome the world—our faith.

This brings to us what we see in the whole of Scripture of those that are true followers of God and Christ. We see that a true Christian may struggle with sin but they do not look at being a Christian as a burden or something that is so hard because of the unwillingness to want to do as God commands. We may struggle to be obedient at times but in reality the command is not what we have a problem with, it is our love for sin. See if you live your life for yourself and go on living how you want, claiming to be a Christian but not recognizing your sinfulness then Jesus clearly says that you are one that gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself.

The call to discipleship is not some attachment to your life but rather what your life should be continuously. If you “came to Christ” or “made a profession of faith” and have never changed or are not continuing to change then you have never received the power of the Holy Spirit and therefore you are not saved. In other words you did not realize what being a Christian actually is. It is not like joining a social club or a sports team, it is a life changing work of God. I want to take our attention back to Luke 14.

We already looked at Luke 14:26-27 that gave us a good viewpoint of how we should love God before everything. I now want to look at what Jesus says after those verses to further make the point of the commitment we have made in following Christ. Jesus says in Luke 14:28-33 For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? ²⁹ Lest, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, ³⁰ saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ ³¹ Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? ³² Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. ³³ So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.

The point is that in order to truly follow Christ, in order for someone to actually come to Christ to follow Him, there must be a clear view for that person to see what the cost of following Jesus is. It is counting the cost, it is noticing that you are giving up your own desires, your own life, your own family to live for Christ, no matter what.

Jesus does not set either self denial or taking up the cross as an option but it is a reality of those that desire and take action to go after Him. If you call yourself a Christian then you must realize that Jesus set down truths to those that follow. It is time to quit playing around and get your life in the right direction. Repent, turn from your sin, your life, your desires and follow Jesus like you never have before.

We have one more step in this section of Scripture that will give to us another truth of those that make a claim to be following Christ. That is what we will look at in our next study.