Sermons – The Enigma of Faith and Discipleship
13th March 2016
I think it was John White, a Canadian Psychiatrist, part-time pastor and author, who said that the person who has to win has not yet learned to love.
I never thought that I would find myself saying this, but I completely agree with him. Life is not about winning and achieving – it is about something much more worthy – it is about serving and “losing.”
I am by nature or design someone who feels he has to win and hates losing. When I step back and think about my approach to sport, games of any kind, life itself – the desire and preoccupation with winning has been quite fundamental. How can it be wrong for this to be a wrong motive? After all, is the world we live in not all about gain and advancement and the pre-eminence of achievement?
Listen to these words in Mark 8 in one or two different translations, just to get the flavour of what Jesus was trying to get across:
‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? 37 Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? [NIV]
“If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. 35 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it. 36 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? 37 Is anything worth more than your soul? [NLT]
34-38 Then he called his disciples and the people around him, and said to them, “If anyone wants to follow in my footsteps, he must give up all right to himself, take up his cross and follow me. The man who tries to save his life will lose it; it is the man who loses his life for my sake and the Gospel’s who will save it. What good can it do a man to gain the whole world at the price of his own soul? What can a man offer to buy back his soul once he has lost it? [J. B. Phillips]
34-37 Calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to saving yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? What could you ever trade your soul for? [Message]
Everyone one of these translations gives a real sense of what Jesus is trying to convey to us:
“If anyone will come after me” – follow Me – allow Me to take the lead - be My disciple – be in My Kingdom – live as I live.
What is it we want? Is it religion where we determine how we live or is it to follow Jesus where we abandon our right to self-determination?
“Deny self” – never put ourselves first – our will is no longer paramount – put self-ambition aside.
Are we content to place our lives at the disposal of Jesus Christ and make it our ambition to follow Him and allow Him to take us where He wills?
Jesus calls us to come into a true relationship with Him – where we recognize His right as Lord – indeed where we delight to follow Him and are content to do His will – where that is what matters most in life.
Put yourself first and you make temporary gains and then lose everything!
We are called to put Jesus and His Kingdom first. We might appear then to be losers but we are winners by virtue of the fact that we are prepared to lose our lives for the sake of something greater than ourselves – than social advancement – money – selfish ambition.
Win and you lose – lose and you wine – there is the paradox!
There is a huge challenge that puts an axe at the root of our ego. It is a complete reversal of the mantra of many in our society – “Self first.”
“I have come to realise that I must put myself first” That was the mantra of a young woman speaking to [at] me. She thought she had come into the light and real freedom when in fact she had taken her first step into the darkness – the road to Hell.
Let us look at Jesus as we prepare for Communion next week and then look at a reference someone gave Him.
First of all we look at the Temptation experience:
“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting for forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.’
4 Jesus answered, ‘It is written: “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”’
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the highest point of the temple. 6 ‘If you are the Son of God,’ he said, ‘throw yourself down. For it is written:
‘“He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”’
7 Jesus answered him, ‘It is also written: “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”’
8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour. 9 ‘All this I will give you,’ he said, ‘if you will bow down and worship me.’
10 Jesus said to him, ‘Away from me, Satan! For it is written: “Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.”’
11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.” [Matthew 4:1-11]
Satan was telling Jesus to put Himself first – make a name for Himself. He was saying to Jesus, “Take all that potential you have and be a real winner in life. Think of what you can have – everything! Wealth. Adulation. Ultimate Political Power. It can all be yours. This is my way.”
Jesus set all of that potential aside. He refused to be a “somebody” because He knew He already was a “someone” in God’s eyes. He had a purpose to fulfil and that was an agreement between Him and the Father. He was to live with the “nobodies” – to live and die and live again for we “nobodies.” He was prepared to go to the ignominy of the Cross – to die an awful death physically, personally and spiritually – for something greater than simply making a name for Himself in this world. He put the salvation of His people first – self did not come first. Listen to that being worked out in the agony of Gethsemane:
36 Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, ‘Sit here while I go over there and pray.’ 37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, ‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.’
39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.’
40 Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. ‘Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?’ he asked Peter. 41 ‘Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.’
42 He went away a second time and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.’
43 When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. 44 So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing. [Matthew 26:36-44]
The key is his resolution in verse 42 – despite His personal agony and fear! It is this crucified, disgraced and defeated Saviour that Islam, Judaism and the world cannot cope with or comprehend.
In John 13 we see this remarkable event:
It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
2 The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. 3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel round his waist. 5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped round him. [John 13:1-5]
The Lord of all Creation has a bowl of water and a towel in His hands and is stooping to wash the feet of His disciples. Be a servant like me – that is what He is saying to them and to all of us who have any ambition to follow Him! He calls us to take the lower path and stay on it – to be like Himself and imitate Him. He calls us to live for the Father and His Kingdom and thus live to do good to and for others. Make it our ambition to be a good person whatever that may cost us.
There is the challenge as we approach Easter. Reflect on what other people think of us. In our Wednesday night Lent series, we have recently been listening to some conversations which non-Christians were having with Tim Keller. They struggled to understand Christianity ultimately because it is the way of denying self, for someone and something greater and more meaningful and satisfying. Our eyes can never be on what other people think of us but by being and doing what is right in the eyes of our Lord.
Is it time for a spiritual MOT – are we still living as Christians? Let us look finally at Philippians 2 and the reference Paul gave Jesus!
Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6 who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death –
even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father. [Philippians 2:1-11]
Is this where we are?
We do not demand our own rights and own way
We are prepared to make ourselves of no reputation
We are willing to take the humble place of servant
We will do whatever He asks of us
We are prepared to lose in order to win!