Christianity is Not for Wimps

Luke 9:23-27

          Well you have heard me say it many times in the past, and today you are actually going to hear it from our Lord, Christianity is not for wimps. Now He didn’t actually say “Christianity is not for wimps”, but he certainly implied it. Jesus also gave some warnings about what would happen if we wimped out on Him.

          To put the following verses into context, the twelve had just confessed Jesus as the Christ through their spokesman Peter. Jesus then told them that His death and resurrection that would soon come to pass. Now he was laying out, not just for the twelve, but for all Christians, the conditions of service.

These conditions are found in Luke 9 beginning in the 23^rd verse:

          And he said to all, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God." Lk.9:23-27

           Jesus said that there are three things we must do if we are going to come after Him. We are to deny ourselves, take up our cross daily, and then follow Him. Let’s look at these commandments individually.

          What does it mean to deny ones self? Peter may have given us the best example of denial, when he denied the Lord by saying, “I do not know Him.” When we deny ourselves we are to say, “I don’t know myself.” We are to treat ourselves as if we don’t exist. Why would we want to do that and how is that possible?

          First of all, the reason we want to deny ourselves is because of whom we are, or rather, who we were. The bible does not paint a very nice picture of the unregenerate person. In fact, the picture is quit ugly. “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.”

                                                                                                                    Genesis 6:5-6

            There are many other ways the bible describes fallen man but this one hits home the hardest. In the eyes of the Lord, the unregenerate can do no good and the thoughts of their hearts are always evil. This is the person we want to deny. This is the person we want to leave behind. This is the person whose sinful thoughts and habits we want to run away from because they are contrary to the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. This person relied on his or her own self for their salvation instead of the saving grace of God alone.

          St. Paul said that we must be willing to give up the past: “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith- that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,  that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.                          Philippians 3:7-11

          If you want to be a disciple of Jesus, you must deny that you ever knew the old you. You must not respond to your will, but to the will of God. Above all, you must recognize that salvation is a gift from God. Nothing that you have done merits the salvation you now have in Christ Jesus. Nothing!

           The second thing Jesus said we must do if we are to be His disciple is to “take up [our] cross daily” What did He mean by that? Let’s look at the historical background to get some answers.

           “Jesus knew what crucifixion meant. When he was a young boy about eleven years of age, Judas the Galilean had led a rebellion against Rome. He had raided the royal armory at Sepphoris, which was only four miles from Nazareth. The Roman vengeance was swift and sudden. Sepphoris was burned to the ground; its inhabitants were sold into slavery; and 2000 of the rebels were crucified on crosses which were set in lines along the roadside that they might be a dreadful warning to others tempted to rebel.” Barclay

          These men had to carry their own crosses to the place of their crucifixion. They had rebelled against the state and now bore the punishment of the state. They were now under the total power of the state, and would be for the rest of their short lives. They had finally submitted to the authority of another.

          When Jesus asks us to take up our cross, he is asking us to give up our independence and come under His complete authority. As always, Christ is our example. When Jesus was on His way to Calvary, He voluntarily accepted the shame, the pain, the persecution and eventually the crucifixion of the cross on our behalf. He had done nothing wrong and was without sin. It was our sin that He took to the cross that day and our sins that needed to be forgiven.

          Jesus is not asking us to do anything that He has not already done for us. Taking up our cross means that we are ready and willing to endure the most horrible things that anyone can do to us or say about us, so that we may be faithful to Jesus Christ.

          The third thing Jesus asks of His disciples is that we follow Him. That requires trust, obedience, and gratitude. 

          “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 To follow Jesus means that we trust Him with every aspect of our lives, including our death. We trust that our sins are forgiven because of His finished work on the cross. We trust that He will never leave us or forsake us no matter what we go through. And we trust that we will spend eternity with Him because God has adopted us. We must trust Him exclusively.

          Following Jesus also requires obedience to Him. Jesus said; “You are my friends if you do what I command you.” John 15:14 This is not complicated, we’ve been given an instruction manual to help us. If we believe what is in it and attempt to follow it, God will reward us. He understands that we will fall short everyday and that is why He sent His Son in the first place. We cannot do this alone, and so He sent His Holy Spirit also. Jesus Christ died for you and the Holy Spirit resides in you, what more could a Christian need?

          We’ve looked at trust and obedience now let’s look at gratitude. In his letter to the Ephisians St. Paul wrote; “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” Ephesians 4:32 - 5:2 

          If you are thankful for what Jesus has done for you, then show it by imitating Him. If you are not sure what He has done for you, look at all you have, especially your salvation, it is all a gift from Him. “Walk in love as Christ loved us” Remember we as humans choose to love. “Love isn’t something that we find….Love isn’t something that we’re in….Love isn’t something that we have….Love isn’t someplace that we fall, it’s something that we do.” (Clint Black/Skip Ewing)

          "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” 

          John Nolland wrote; “It is a matter of faith to nail our colors to the mast and to be ready for any lose for Jesus. This is the way to life. Loyalty to Jesus takes us beyond expediency and on into risk.” How do we lose our life, by devoting ourselves totally and unconditionally to Christ? Are you beginning to see a pattern here?

          “For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?” The term here means to suffer lose in gambling or a bad business deal. The point is that the risk is much greater when we try to hold on to our old life styles than if we turn ourselves over to God. What else do we have to offer God other than our lives?  Jesus wants us to shift our allegiance from ourselves and our worldly desires, to Him and Him alone. By the way, that isn’t a suggestion.

           “For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.” Now we are starting to see the big picture. When we wimp out on Jesus, He turns His back on us. There should be no greater fear in the heart of a Christian than the reality that if we reject our Lords teachings and refuse to confess Him publicly, He will reject us on the last day. 

          Public confession of Christ is part of the cross-bearing we must diligently pursue. In his letter to the Romans St. Paul wrote; “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” Romans 1:16  

            And to Timothy he wrote; “Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God….which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me.…. May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains,” 2 Tim. 1:8, 12, 16. 

          Darrell Bock put it this way; “What one decides now about Jesus and His teachings determines how He will respond to that person when He returns in Majesty to judge.”

          These are hard lessons, and that is why they are not for wimps. When Jesus says “Follow me” He knows that we are going to have to turn everything over to Him. He knows that it won’t be easy for us but He insists that we do it anyway. There is no escape clause in these verses.

          I want to end with a quote from William Barclay that I believe puts this whole passage into perspective. “Loyalty to Jesus will have its reward and disloyalty it’s punishment. If we are true to Him in time, He will be true to us in eternity. If we seek to follow him in this world, in the next He will point to us as one of His people. But if by our lives we disown Him, even though with our lips we confess Him, the day must come when He cannot do other than disown us.”

          The road that has been chosen for us to follow is not an easy one. At times, the example we have been given seems out of reach. The goal is to be perfect in Christ. The reality is that we fall far short of that goal everyday. The choice is clear, the decision eternal. Follow Jesus, boldly declare your allegiance to Him and remember, Christianity is not for wimps.