Deny Yourself And Take Up Your Cross And Follow Jesus

Introduction

Matthew chapter 16 and verse 24. The Bible says this. Then Jesus said to his disciples, if anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? What will it take to be with Jesus? That’s what Jesus is talking about here. That’s what he means when he says, if anyone wants to come after me, he’s talking about what it’s going to take, what it’s going to require of you and me to be with him.

And now the disciples, when they were with him in this moment, probably didn’t understand exactly what he was talking about. They might have thought Jesus was talking about his trip to the next city, his trip over to Capernaum, or his trip to Bethesda or something. After all, the night Jesus was betrayed, the night before he was murdered. Jesus told his disciples, where I’m going, you cannot come. They didn’t even get it then. They probably didn’t understand it here.

You and I know exactly what Jesus means when he says, if anyone wants to come after me, if anyone wants to be where I am, if anyone wants to go where I’m going, we know exactly what he’s talking about. He’s talking about eternity. And so these verses become so important to us. Because in these verses, Jesus tells his disciples exactly what it will take, exactly what it will require to be with him in the end. He tells us what it will take to be with him in heaven, what it will take to enter into the joy of our Lord, what it will take at the end of my life for God to look at me, for Jesus to look at me and say, Enter in, my good and faithful servant.

1. He Must Deny Himself

Matthew 16 tells me what it’s going to take to be with Jesus. And I think that’s a discussion that’s worthy of disciples of Jesus. I think every disciple needs to know the answer to that question. I think that’s something that’s worth discussing this morning. So if you’ll take a few moments of your time, if you’ll be gracious enough to do that, I’d like to talk to you about what it’s going to take to be with Jesus. What you and I have to do in this world so that we’ll be with him for all of eternity when this life is over. Consider this with me first of all. The first thing Jesus says. Matthew 16 and verse 24. Then Jesus said to his disciples, If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself.

The first thing Jesus says is that if I want to come after him, if I want to be where he is, I have to deny myself. And right off the bat, that’s such a countercultural thing. That’s such a thing that our world doesn’t talk about at all. Our world thinks, so many churches think that if you want to be with Jesus, if you just want to be with Jesus, you’ll be with him. It doesn’t matter your lifestyle, it doesn’t matter your attitude, it doesn’t matter how you live, you’ll be with Jesus just because you want to be with Jesus. And that’s not the case. Neither is it the case that I get to be with Jesus just because I walk inside a church building on Sundays.

That doesn’t get you in. Neither is it the case that I get to be with Jesus just because I believe in him. Neither is it the case that I get to be with Jesus just because one time in my life I was baptized and had my sins washed away. That doesn’t cut it. To be with Jesus, I have to find the strength to deny myself. And that phrase is a special one. Deny yourself. And we say that all the time. We know that. We say, I need to deny myself. But do we ever ask ourselves what it actually means? What’s it mean to deny yourself? Usually when we think about denying something, we think about refusing entry. You know, Joseph and Mary, they were denied access to the end, which meant what?

They were turned away. They couldn’t sleep there that night. If you guys decided I wasn’t a very good preacher, when Leah and I and Ellison show up this morning, you might bar the doors, right? You would deny us entry. Don’t come in here. That’s usually what we think of when we think of denying something. But the phrase that Jesus uses here is actually much more rich than that. It actually means a whole lot more than just denying someone access to something. In fact, the phrase means to declare that you have no association, you have no acquaintance with the person. To deny someone is to say, I’m not connected to you. I’m not interested in you. I’m not invested in you. If I’m going to deny you, according to Matthew chapter 16, I need to look at you and say, I don’t know you and I don’t care about you.

That’s what it means. In fact, in Matthew chapter 26, Jesus uses the exact same phrase to describe Peter when he says, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. And what did Peter do? Did he just tell Jesus he couldn’t come into his house? Lock the door? No. When he was sitting around that campfire in Jerusalem the night Jesus was betrayed, and everybody started to say, I think, I think you’re with Jesus. Aren’t you connected to Jesus? Don’t you know that guy? He said, I don’t know the man. I’m not interested in him. I’m not invested in him. I don’t like him. I don’t know him. That’s what it means to deny someone. To claim that you’re not connected to them. You’re not interested in them.

You don’t care about them. Now think about that. If I want to be with Jesus when I die, he says, you have to do that to yourself. You have to deny yourself. That means I need to go home this afternoon. I need to look in the mirror, and I need to say to me, I don’t know you. I’m not interested in you. And the reason we have to do that is because this life is not about me. I’m not, I don’t care about myself. I’m not interested in myself. I’m not invested in myself. I’m not interested in my worldly ambition. I’m not interested in what I can accomplish in this world because I’m interested in somebody else. I’m interested in Jesus. He’s the one I’m invested in.

To deny yourself means that I cut all ties to my worldly ambition. It means that I stop thinking about what’s good for me. I stop worrying about my life and my things and my time. And I start worrying about Jesus and Jesus’ things and Jesus’ time and Jesus’ kingdom. To deny yourself means to finally come to the realization that my life is not about me. My life is not about me. Turn to Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1. I think the Apostle Paul makes this point very clear here in Colossians chapter 1. Colossians 1 in verse 16, the Bible says this, for by him all things were created, both in the heavens and on the earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him and for him.

All things have been created through him in for him. That means I’m on the earth because of Jesus. I’m a person because of Jesus. I have talents and abilities. I have stuff. I have houses, I have cars, and the only reason I have all of that is through Jesus. He gave it to me. And the reason he gave it to me is so I could use it for him. My life is not about me. Life is not about what I want. And we live in a world that doesn’t understand that. We live in a world, we live in a culture that has deified desire. In our world, the highest thing you can do, the most important thing you can do, the most moral thing you can do is decide what your flesh wants most, and then go out and chase it and get it.

And that’s what life is all about. Doing what makes you happy, doing what you desire. But that’s not why I’m on this earth. I’m on this earth because of Jesus. And for Jesus. To come after Jesus, to be with him in the end. I have to be able to look at myself in the mirror and say, I don’t know you, and I’m not interested in you. I’m interested in Jesus. That everything I am and everything I have in this world is not about me. It’s not about what I want. It’s about what Christ wants. Can’t be with Jesus. Can’t be with Jesus if you don’t do that. If you can’t deny yourself. I think that’s an easy thing to forget. I think that’s an easy thing to pass over.

2. Take Up His Cross

That’s an easy thing to say on Sunday morning. It’s a lot harder when I wake up and put my feet on the ground and I look in the mirror to get ready for the day on Monday morning to remember that what I’m about to do today is not live for me. I’m going to live for Jesus. But to be with Jesus, we must deny ourselves. But that’s not all. Jesus says something else. Jesus says something else in Matthew 16 and verse 24. Then Jesus said to his disciples If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

To be with Jesus, you have to be the kind of person that carries crosses. Now to many people, the cross is a symbol of suffering and pain. It’s a symbol of anguish. The Romans certainly saw it that way. Crucifixion was the best way to inflict the maximum amount of pain during execution. You see, crucifixion was not just about killing somebody. It was about killing somebody in the most gruesome and horrifying and painful way possible. They certainly saw it as a symbol of pain. And so it might be easy for us to look at what Jesus says here.

But that’s only part of it. Because to Jesus, the cross is in a symbol of pain, at least not how Jesus uses it here. To Jesus, the cross is a symbol of sacrifice. It’s a symbol of giving yourself giving yourself up. When Jesus tells us to carry our cross, he’s telling us we have to be willing to hurt in this world. We have to be willing to go without in this world. We have to be willing to give things up in this world. Jesus tells me, Christians, the people who are going to be with me in the end, they’re the kind of people who give stuff up, stuff up. When I ask them to give stuff up. It’s the life of a Christian. A life of carrying crosses.

A life of giving up stuff that I have to give up in order to please my Savior to do what he’s asked me to do. When I was about 10 years old, my brother and I were on the same baseball team in Orlando, Florida. We played, get ready for it. We played on the Yankees. I’m sorry. It was awful. It was awful. But the good part was we were the absolute best team in the league. Without a doubt. No team came anywhere close to the town that was on our roster, above and beyond everybody else. And that had zero to do with me being on the team. That was all about the fact that my brother was on the team and he was a stud. He could hit home runs and he could pitch and strike out 14 batters in a game.

He was he was awesome, right? He was the best player on the field. Second best team in the league was the Tigers. And the lady who managed their team was also in charge of something else in our league, which was.

She’s in charge of the schedule. You want to guess what night the Yankees played the Tigers every single time? Come on. Wednesday night. Why? Because that lady knew Todd Banning would not be on the field. She knew the best player on our team would not be playing on Wednesday night. So every single time we played the Tigers, we played them on Wednesday night, and we lost all those games. Came in second place because of it. That still gets me. How is that any fun? She knew what she was doing. But you know what? As we came in second place, as we lost. The message my parents wanted us to get from that became very clear. Crystal clear.

That Christians are the kind of people who give stuff up. Christians are the kind of people that carry crosses. Christians are the kind of people who look at something in this world that I want, look at something in this world that I like, look at something in this world that maybe I don’t want to do. And say, you know what? If Jesus asked me to do it, if Jesus asked me to give it up, I’ll give it up. No matter what it is. Christians are the kind of people who give stuff up. That’s what it means to be a Christian. That’s what it’s going to take to be with Jesus. And if you know, you realize that’s the deal we made when we got baptized.

Turn me to Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6 tells us that when I got baptized, I made a deal with God. Yes, I’m saved because God is merciful. Yes, I’m saved because Jesus is wonderful and he died for me, and he sacrificed, but I’m also saved because I made a deal with God. That he would wash away my sins, and then from that point on, everything I am and everything I have is His. Nothing’s off limits. Romans 6 and verse 3. Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death. Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with him in order that our body of sin might be done away with. So that we would no longer be slaves to sin. For he who has died is freed from sin. I am freed from sin, brothers and sisters. My sins have been washed away because I was baptized for the remission of my sins. But you know why I’m free from sin? Because I told God from that point forward, I’m his. And I’ll give up whatever I have to give up to please him. As Paul would say, as Paul would say in Galatians.

In Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20, such a powerful passage. Galatians 2 and verse 20. Paul said, I have been crucified with Christ. And it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me in 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. When I got baptized, I made a deal with God. That I would give up whatever it takes to serve him if he would cleanse me of my sins. And now that I’ve been baptized, now that those sins have been washed away, he gets everything. That contract reaches out and it grabs hold of every single piece of my life. Nothing’s off limits. Christians are the kind of people who carry crosses, who give stuff up.

Brothers and sisters, you can’t be with Jesus if that’s not who you are. It ain’t gonna happen.

We talk about how important it is to do what this word says. And I think sometimes we don’t, well, we agree to that, and we think about how I need to obey God. And what we don’t think about is that most of the time, a lot of the time, obeying God is not an easy thing to do. Obeying God is cross carrying. It’s difficult. Rigorous labor. It’s me doing things that are uncomfortable or unnatural or that I don’t want to do at all. It’s carrying crosses. It’s getting up and coming to services on Sunday night when I’d rather stay at home. It’s choosing to turn off the TV and pray and study the Bible with my family instead. It’s choosing to love my wife when she’s disrespectful to me, and it’s my wife choosing to respect me when I don’t love her.

It’s choosing to be good to those who’ve done me wrong. And to keep my mouth shut when I want to gossip about someone that I don’t like. It’s saying no to myself. It’s picking up crosses. If I want to be with Jesus, I’ve got to learn to do that. How are you doing on that? Is there any cross in your life that you haven’t picked up? Is there anything in your life right now that Jesus has asked you to give up? Jesus has told you this needs to stop. Or Jesus has told you this needs to start. And up to this point you’ve been unwilling to pick up that cross. You can’t be with Jesus if you don’t. Jesus tells us about some of the some people in the world in Matthew 7.

Matthew 7 and verse 21. You may be wondering what’s the difference between someone denying themselves and someone picking up their cross? Well, I’ll tell you what the difference is. We live in a world full of people who are willing and ready to admit that life should be about Jesus, that Jesus should be everything, that the reason I’m alive is because of Jesus. And I should deny myself, but who also haven’t done a single thing to pick up crosses and to serve him in their life. Jesus talked about those people in Matthew 7, verse 21. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. But he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter. It’s not enough just to call Jesus Lord.

3. Follow Me Daily

It’s not enough just to realize that life isn’t about me. I have to pick up crosses. And there are so many people, so many people who claim to be religious, who claim to follow Christ, who aren’t willing to sacrifice a single pleasure, a single comfort, a single desire to serve Jesus. You can’t get to Jesus if you don’t carry crosses. We have to remember that. To be with Jesus, I have to learn to deny myself, to realize that this life is not about me. And then I have to be the kind of person that carries crosses. And Jesus adds one more thing in Matthew chapter 16. Matthew 16, Jesus tells us one more thing I have to do if I want to be with him. Matthew 16, verse 24, then Jesus said to his disciples, if anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

He must follow me. I think there’s a couple good points to be made with those last two words, follow me. I think you can make a good point that Jesus was the perfect example for us, right? That I should live my life the way he lived his life. He shows us the perfect example for how to live because he was sinless and perfect. But I think there’s also a good message here about consistency. That I pick up my crosses and I deny myself and I do those things every single day. In fact, Jesus would add a word to that phrase in Luke chapter 9. Luke 9 and verse 23, he would say this. And he was saying to them all, if anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

This was something that Jesus said over and over and over again. This was a message that he preached all over the place in different cities. This was something he told everybody who is willing to hear that a man must deny himself and pick up his cross and follow him daily. That’s what we must do over and over and over and over and over again is choose to follow Jesus every single day. We have to be consistent about it. You know, this following Jesus thing is not something that we can just take a break from every once in a while. It’s not something we can do one day of the week. It’s not something we can take a day off of or a summer off of.

Road and you’d keep your eye on me, and then we make it to 45 somehow, and you keep your eye on me, and as we’re going south on 45, you’d keep your eye on me. And then if, you know, as is going to happen, 17 people cut you off and get in between, that’s right. You’d call me so that what? So you can get your eyes back on me, and you’d follow me and keep your eyes on me all the way to my house. Because the only way to follow someone is to keep following them. The second, you take your eyes off me. What? You’re not following me. And that’s what Jesus is saying. Follow me, be consistent. Deny yourself. Pick up your cross. And do that every single day.

That’s what it’s going to take to be with Jesus. It’s going to take a lifelong commitment to self-denial and cross carrying. Later in the same chapter in Luke chapter 9, Jesus would talk to those people who are willing to follow him, willing to deny themselves, willing to pick up crosses, but not willing to do it so consistently. Luke 9 and verse 57. As they were going along the road, someone said to him, I will follow you wherever you go. And Jesus said to him, The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. And he said to another, follow me. But he said, Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.

But he said, Allow the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God. And another said, I will follow you, Lord, but first permit me to say goodbye to those at home. But Jesus said to him, No one after putting his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. You see, the kingdom of heaven isn’t made up of those who started to follow. It’s made up of those who always follow. It’s made up of those who put their eye on Jesus and don’t take their eye off him. Are you keeping your eye on Jesus? You’re following him daily. Maybe you made a commitment to him at one point. You committed to Jesus and you understood, you realized life is not about you.

And you denied yourself. And because you denied yourself, you were willing to pick up any cross that he asked you to pick up. I’ll do anything for you, Jesus. But since that time, your commitment has not been the same. You’ve sloughed off. And once again, even though you were baptized, even though you committed to him, you realize that today, right now. There are some crosses you aren’t willing to pick up. And there are some days when it’s not about Jesus and it’s all about you. It’s all about me. And to me and you, those who have trouble with consistency. Jesus says, follow me daily. Follow me every single day. Don’t take a breather. Don’t stop. Don’t give yourself a pass to not do it for a day.

Conclusion

Follow me every single day. And that’s what it takes to be with Jesus. I can’t be with him if I don’t. Ultimately, the message of Jesus in Matthew 16, 24 is this. To come after Jesus, I must lose my life in Jesus. I must lose my life in Jesus. I must let him take control of everything I am and everything I have. I must let him dictate all of the terms. In Acts chapter 17, Paul said that in him we live and we move and we have our very being. To be with Jesus, I have to give all of that back to him. Give him your life. Give him your every movement. Give him your very.

To help you do that consistently every single day. And if you realize that you’re a Christian, you’ve fallen off in that regard, and you aren’t doing what you need to do to be with Jesus in the end. We’re here to help you with that. Or if you’ve never given your life to Christ, you’ve never been washed in the waters of baptism and had your sins washed away. You can do that right now. But realize that when you do, you’re giving everything to Jesus. In the hope that you’ll find your life at the end and you’ll be with him in heaven. So if we can help you with anything, we invite you to come to the front and we’ll help you as we stand and as we stand.