True Discipleship
Truth Taught- The Failure to See Jesus, the Messiah Correctly Leads to a Failure in Discipleship
The ESV Study Bible has a very helpful Chart that shows us the dynamic of what takes place when Jesus predicts His Passion. The Bible shows us that at each event the disciples misunderstand what the Messiah will do, namely, suffer, die and be raised on the third day. At each of Jesus’ passion predictions the disciples don’t get it and Jesus then teaches what true discipleship looks like. It’s important to conclude from these three predictions and subsequent misunderstandings that to not understand who Jesus is and what He will do leads to faulty discipleship and so, a proper view of Jesus and His mission leads us to proper discipleship. To state it again for us, then we see those who don’t see Jesus rightly and don’t understand what He accomplished on our behalf will not be a true disciple.
Our Lord has accomplished everything for us. He is the Son of God, the Messiah King no one is greater than Jesus. You can’t work your way up the ladder of success to be even close to the greatness of Jesus. Neither can we accomplish any work that can come even remotely close to what Jesus has accomplished for us. This is why when our Lord is not understood rightly, He goes straight to discipleship because the fallen human will always seek to add to their salvation by works because they do not understand who Jesus is and what He has done for us.
Last time we saw what God had in store for the true Messiah. He must suffer, be killed and rise on the third day. Today, we are shown what it means to be a disciple.
The standard definition of “disciple” (noun) is someone who adheres to the teachings of another. It is a follower or a learner. It refers to someone who takes up the ways of someone else. Applied to Jesus, a disciple is someone who learns from him to live like him — someone who, because of God’s awakening grace, conforms his or her words and ways to the words and ways of Jesus. Or, you might say, as others have put it in the past, disciples of Jesus are themselves “little Christs” (Acts 26:28; 2 Corinthians 1:21).
All Christians are by definition disciples. So, this text is not only about the original twelve but if you call yourself a Christian then you too are a disciple.
While Jesus was correcting the disciple’s understanding of what the Messiah will do and be, He had some very important things to teach them about was a disciple is and what he/she will do and be.
There are many in this world who claim to be a Christian but that claim has no real substance. They do not exhibit the fruit of the spirit and they are not living like Jesus or really even attempting to be like Jesus. So, our Lord teaches His first disciples what they should be and, in the process, teaches us as well.
We will see in these short verses four statements of purpose Jesus makes concerning true discipleship. Each time He predicts His Passion, He has to also explain how this new and proper view of His Messiahship directly affects discipleship. To have a wrong view of Messiahship will always produce wrong discipleship.
Who Jesus is and what He will do greatly affects how we live for Him.
Remember their view of Messiahship was that the Messiah will appear to overthrow Jewish enemies of the state. With that view, the disciples are jockeying for position. They are arguing who will be the greatest when Jesus does these things. They didn’t understand that the Messiah is not going to overthrow Rome. He will die for their sins and our sins. This greatly affects discipleship. Let’s look together at what according to Jesus, a true disciple looks like and see that a true disciple shows courage and sacrifice and that suffering is not only Jesus’ destiny but also the calling of His disciples as well.
Please Stand…
Mark 8:34–38 (ESV)
34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? 37 For what can a man give in return for his soul? 38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
1. A Disciple Must Deny Himself (8:34)
34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
Jesus, here, sets forth the conditions for following Him as a Christian disciple. These requirements extend not only to Jesus’ original twelve disciples but to all through the centuries who call themselves Christian and beloved, we must see today that they extend to us as well.
Notice with me that our Lord calls the crowd to Him now. What He teaches is not just for the twelve but here everyone hears. These are statements for all who would be Christians. Here is what a Christian disciple does.
A true Christian will follow Jesus in self-denial. To say it another way, one cannot be a Christian except by self-denial. So, a Christian is not a detached observer but he/she is a participant in suffering, struggles, and victories of the Christian life as shown through the life of the Church. Being a disciple is not about doing a bunch of things. It’s not about who is the busiest. A disciple is about being not about doing.
A true disciple follows Jesus and His teaching with reckless abandonment to self-preservation to following Christ when there are consequences and to being little Christs when it is not at all popular.
To deny yourself means to live for Jesus first and then live for others. All this is so He receives the glory not us…we are nothing and He is everything.
Jesus was marched to Calvary carrying His own cross. He showed us what extreme self-denial looks like. So, He tells His followers that we too are to deny ourselves and carry our cross.
Do you see what Jesus is telling us here? We must be ready to shift the focus from ourselves to Him and to others. This is to the point at times, great sacrifice.
Jesus would never think of Himself. He thought of pleasing His Father and saving us. He did that to the point of carrying a literal cross and dying for the Father’s glory and for our salvation. So, if we are to follow Jesus, we too will need to sacrifice many things in the process. We deny ourselves so Jesus is glorified just like Jesus denied Himself so the Father would be glorified.
Our Lord is asking His disciples, are you sure you want to be a Christian?
Crucifixion was a real and impending threat not only to Jesus but to His disciples as well. Peter was crucified upside down. The others were martyred for their faith. The next generation Christians suffered under Nero and many were also crucified. So, taking up your cross had real meaning for them.
Paul teaches us that suffering is as much a part of the Christian life as going to heaven is.
Romans 8:16–17 (ESV)
16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
So, to be a true Christian Disciple means self-denial and this self-denial may be extreme.
2. A Disciple May Lose His Life (8:35)
35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.
Our Lord not only knows what will happen to Him when they get to Jerusalem, He also knows what will happen to His followers. They will all be brought before the Roman authorities with this question…are you a Christian and do you worship Jesus? Or do you worship Caesar? Is Jesus Lord or is Caesar Lord?
Jesus tells them on that day, don’t deny Me before others seeking to save your life because if you save it on that day, you will lose it for eternity. If you lose your life that day, you will actually save it for all eternity. To deny Jesus means you will lose your life.
Jesus shares with His followers that they must be committed to Him. There must be an allegiance to Him and not to the world, to goods, to family or friends, to even their own lives. This is the ultimate commitment Jesus clearly teaches. He is to be their treasure, their God. He is to be everything to them.
The Christian life is a life of abandonment to the world. What have you abandoned to follow Christ?
The Apostle Peter denied Jesus the night before the crucifixion. By God’s grace he was restored and would later suffer the same death Jesus did.
Throughout Church History there have also been other accounts of deniers of Jesus. In our humanity we would think that this is the easy way out and that to escape martyrdom is best, to live is better than to die. We might think through the situation and perhaps reason that I can always ask God to forgive me and everything will be okay. This is not the case for true Christians who when put to the test and initially deny Jesus.
One account of French Christians who denied Jesus…How terrible it was for those who denied Christ. They were “dejected, ugly and full of disgrace. Moreover, they were ridiculed by the pagans as despicable cowards.”
They were trying to save their lives, the deniers had been sent back to prison, but in God’s amazing plan they had not simply returned to rot in prison awaiting death. Rather, God sent the faithful ones to intermingle with them in prison and restore them.
For through the martyrs, most of the deniers were reconceived and reimpregnated in the womb and restored to new life, learning at last how to confess. Alive now and fortified, they came before the judgment seat so the governor could question them again. And God, who does not desire the death of the sinner but shows favor to the repentant, made this moment sweet.
Some of the Christians failed and denied the Lord. They were perhaps dejected and full of disgrace because they knew the words of Jesus when he said, “Whoever denies me before men, I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven (Matthew 10:33).”
And yet, God didn’t allow their story to end at that point. Some of them were ready to die for the Lord and others were not. But even the ones who denied Christ were still shown incredible grace and mercy from the Lord. They went to their deaths knowing their relationship with Jesus was real.
There have been many courageous martyrs through Church History who would not deny Christ, they would not recant their theological position of truth and they died well.
3. A Disciple Must See the True Eternal Value of His Soul (8:36-37)
36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? 37 For what can a man give in return for his soul?
Here, Jesus speaks of value. He uses banking terms of profit, loss and gain. The scenario is not hypothetical but is fixed in reality.
His point is there is something way more valuable than your earthly life and that is your eternal soul. Your soul is the most valuable possession you have. There is nothing of more value than your soul. Because this is the case, if we lose our souls there remains nothing of equal or greater value, we can give God to purchase our souls back from Him.
A man could gain the entire world and all its wealth and still never have enough value to purchase his soul back should he lose it.
Jesus warns us to not trust in riches but live a life that honors God. A true disciple does not view his wealth as an end and its not something to ever trust. Trust in Jesus Christ and live for Him and never deny Him. He is your life.
To forfeit eternal life then is to suffer absolute loss even though in this life you may have accomplished many things, don’t trust them because they cannot purchase your soul back.
4. A Disciple Loves Jesus Always (8:38)
38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
All these statements of Jesus reinforce the complete irony of saving your life only to eternally lose it.
Here I want to show how verse 38 and verse 35 are to been seen as going hand in hand with each other.
35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.
Here is the idea that the motive for the denial of Jesus is to be friends with the world. To disassociate oneself with Jesus so that lost people will like you.
Our Lord is telling His disciples and us that to be a Christian is to suffer contempt and ridicule from others who do not know Jesus.
The person who gains life and here worldly approval by denying Jesus will suffer eternal loss. Denial of Jesus confirms that our true god is the world and its approval.
Our Lord very clearly tells us that to be ashamed of Him means He will be ashamed of us.
We are to express our commitment to Jesus and not to the world. We must make godly choices. What drives your behavior? Are you more concerned with conforming to your current crowd or conforming to Christ? Are you more concerned what people think than what God thinks?
As we see Jesus’ commitment to the Father, we see how we are to be committed to Him.
So, a true disciple knows that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. A true disciple knows that Jesus went to the cross to suffer because that was the Father’s will to save a people.
Likewise, Jesus’ disciples are to follow Him as Jesus followed the Father. We are to deny ourself like Jesus did and suffer daily, if need be, for Jesus. We are to not deny Him thinking that we can save our lives but, if need be, give our lives to gain eternal life. A disciple knows the value of eternal things especially the value of the soul. The disciple is not ashamed of Jesus and does not deny Him to fit in with the crowd.
Being a Christian takes courage because it requires suffering loss in this world to gain eternal life in the world to come.
Beloved we are saved by grace through faith and after we are saved then we seek diligently to be faithful and to follow Christ. So, we are called to deny ourself, give our lives, love Jesus more than the world and to never be ashamed of Him.
If you have been guilty of failing as a disciple then renew in your mind all that Jesus has done for you and repent.
Being a disciple is being like Jesus. Its who you are and not what you do. Lost people can do things but they cannot be like Christ. Beloved be conformed to the image of Christ be a disciple.
Resources
Mark by James Edwards
Mark by William Lane
Words of grace
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