Rev Francisco Bilog This morning I want us to look at a passage of Scripture found in Mark 8:34-35. “Then Jesus called the crowd to Him along with His disciples & said: ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself & take up his cross & follow me.
“For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me & for the gospel will save it.’”
You have heard this passage of Scripture before, haven’t you? When he talks about us denying ourselves & taking up a cross & following Him – what does that mean?
Well, we’re going to talk about that in just a few moments. But before we do, I believe that we ought to realize 2 things about Jesus.
A. First of all, there is the startling honesty of Jesus. Jesus never tries to bribe us by the offer of an easy life.
ILL. I want to share to you my first appointments. I was 19 years old and new graduate of Mt. Apo Christian worker’s School in Kidapawan. I went to my first appointments, called MAKIKALANA CIRCUIT-meaning Marabog, Kilikili, Kalilangan, La Roxas and Nabaliwa, which are located in three Municipalities of Maramag, Wao and Pangantucan. These three Municipalities were declared as settlement area in 1955 for poor people from Luzon and the visayas islands. My order was to established local Church congregations among the Ilocanos. I walked 5 to 6 hours from one part of my circuit to another, through hot dusty roads during summer and wet muddy during rainy seasons. I have reserved my 10pesos monthly salary to buy shoes, since they only last for 8 months. I had no money for snack or meals so I had to adjust my walking travel to be able to reach a house or group of settlers at least an hour for me to share the gospel and prayers and of course to avail of their hospitality meals. I also planned my daily visits and work so that I shall be around families who will surely invite me to sleep for the night.
Well, there were more interesting experiences I had during my first years of frontier work, but them I have come to understand what Jesus meant when he said,
“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself & take up his cross & follow me.”
After two years in that frontier areas, a local church was organized in Kalilangan with lot and church building; and two worshipping congregations in Kilikili and Dagumbaan.
It’s not an easy road! And Jesus never sought to lure people to Him by the offer of an easy way.
B. Secondly, Jesus never calls upon us to do anything that He was not prepared to do Himself. What He asks us to face, He has already faced. And when He calls upon us to take up a cross, He, Himself, has already borne one for us.
That goes against the grain of what the world teaches. The world teaches us that anything that bothers us or becomes difficult, we should avoid. Sadly, some churches seem to have adopted that attitude, too.
And yet, the words of Jesus are still there, “If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself & take up his cross & follow me.”
PROP. What did He mean? What does it mean to “take up” or “bear a cross”? What does the Bible teach about “cross bearing?”
I. CROSS BEARING IS ALWAYS VOLUNTARY
First of all, the Bible tells us that “taking up a cross” is voluntary. Jesus calls us, & challenges us, but it is our decision. Taking up a cross & following Jesus is voluntary.
But I’m afraid that generally we’re pretty careless in the way we talk about our “cross bearing.”
ILL. For example, suppose that after extensive testing the doctor tells me, “I’m sorry, but you have diabetes, & you’ll have to deal with it for the rest of your life.” Now that may be a burden that I must bear, but it is not a cross I have taken up for Jesus. So I can’t then tell others, “Well, that’s my cross to bear,” because I didn’t volunteer for it.
Or if a storm sweeps through our area & destroys my home, I can’t call it “a cross I have to bear,” because I didn’t volunteer for that either. It is not something that I chose to do for Jesus.
SUM. You see, if I talk about bearing a cross, that means I am voluntarily taking it up for Jesus. I’m going to enlist, to offer myself in some way to serve Jesus.
II. CROSS BEARING IS AN ACT OF LOVE
A. So, cross bearing is not an accident that happens to us, or something unavoidable that we must face. Cross bearing is an act of love that we choose to do. It is a task that we undertake, a price that we pay, out of love for Him.
For Jesus it meant going to a cross to die because He loved us so much He could do nothing else.
It means reaching out to people who are unlovable & unlovely & who may never return the love. And yet we are to keep on loving because that’s what Jesus did.
B. You want to read a description of what it means to carry a cross? Turn over to 1 Corinthians 13. Listen as I begin reading in vs. 4, & I want to change the word “love” & put the word “cross bearer” in its place.
“A cross bearer is patient. A cross bearer is kind. A cross bearer does not envy. A cross bearer does not boast. A cross bearer is not arrogant or rude. A cross bearer is not self seeking.
“A cross bearer is not easily angered, nor keeps records of wrongs. He does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. A cross bearer always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”
ILL. From a book titled “The Lookout” the author Dr. Paul Brand related that his father was a missionary to India. For years he saw almost no converts, due primarily to a Hindu priest who warned the people that if they listened to the Christians their cattle would die. Sure enough, the cattle of those who came to the Christian chapel did die, but only because the priest poisoned them!
As a result, almost no one would listen to the gospel. Bland’s father at times doubted his calling.
Following the First World War a terrible flu epidemic took the lives of thousands in India. People lived in isolation & many died from dehydration. Dr. Brand’s parents cooked a huge vat of soup & took it in buckets to the afflicted in their neighborhood. When the wife of the Hindu priest became ill, the Brands compassionately ministered to her, but she also died.
When the priest himself became ill, the Brands brought soup & attempted to assist him. Before he died, he asked the Brands to adopt his
daughter. He said, “All my life I have served my people, but now that I am hurting no one comes to help me but Christians. I don’t want my daughter to grow up as a Hindu.”
The Brands adopted her & today she is an 81-year-old grandmother with a large family of Christians. Because the Indian people saw the deeds of mercy to people who had persecuted Christians for years, the mission became a thriving work. (Bob Russell in the 2-24-2002 “The Lookout” Standard Pub. Co)
SUM. That is what cross bearing means. It means taking the love of God to the very ends of the world. To touch the lives of people who are unlovable. It means
denying & sacrificing. It means paying the price regardless of the hardships we must endure.
III. CROSS BEARING IS HARD
A. Now it is not hard to understand that people have always had trouble with that. Whenever the message of the cross has been preached people have always objected to it. “Wait a minute. That is hard. I can’t do that.”
Jesus talked about His impending death on a cross & His apostles balked at that. They tried to keep Him from going to Jerusalem. They said, “We don’t want you to die.” When He did die on the cross they hid behind locked doors, fearful of what might happen next.
So the cross was a stumbling block to the Jews and to many early christians. It wasn’t what they expected. It wasn’t what they wanted to hear. And neither do we.
B. Jesus’ talk about bearing a cross bothers us, too. As we lean back in our easy chair, hot coffee in our cup & a loving companion by our side, rejoicing in our success, we hear Him say, “Take up your cross & follow me.”
He says, “There are some lost sheep & I need a shepherd to find them & bring them home again.” Today Jesus continues to say, “There are many people who don’t know me, I need dedicated Christians to go and make them my disciples.” But we say, “Lord, I don’t want to bear that kind of a cross. I’ve worked hard & I really need more time for myself.”
Sunday morning comes & He says, “I have a classroom of over active kids who need to hear the good news about Jesus.” But we say, “Not me Lord. I don’t want to carry that kind of a cross.”
You see, Jesus is setting crosses all around us, just waiting for us to pick one up. Someone says, “Missionary pastors need money to carry the Gospel to the many parts of Mindanao.” And once again we find ourselves wrestling with a cross.
Over here are all the things that we want. And over there are the needs of a people who have not accepted Christ as their savior and Lord. And the words of Jesus come back to haunt us, “If you’re my disciple, then deny yourself & take up your cross & follow me.” The idea of carrying a cross is a stumbling block & we keep falling over it.
C. History is full of examples of people, who by giving away their lives, gained life eternal.
ILL. Late in the 4th Century, there was a Christian by the name of Telemachus who decided that the only way to protect himself from the corruption of the world & to serve God was by becoming a hermit & living in a desert region.
But one day as he rose from his knees, it dawned upon him that if he wanted to serve God that he must serve men; that by staying in the desert alone he was not serving God, & that the cities were full of people who needed his help. So he bid farewell to the desert & set out for the greatest city in the world, the city of Rome.
Now by this time the terrible persecutions of the first 3 centuries were over. Christianity had won! In fact, Christianity was now the official, approved religion of the Roman Empire. Even the Emperor himself was a Christian. And so were most of the people. At least, in name they were Christians, if not in fact. Being a Christian was the politically correct thing to do, if you wanted to be in favor with the Emperor.
Anyway, Telemachus arrived in Rome at a time when Stilicho, the Roman general, had gained a mighty victory over the Goths. So to Stilicho there was granted a Roman “triumph” with processions & celebrations & games in the Coliseum, with the young Emperor Honorius by his side.
Remember, Rome was supposedly a Christian city, but one thing still lingered from its terrible past. There were still the bloody games in the Coliseum.
Christians were no longer thrown to the lions; but still those captured in war had to fight & kill each other to make a Roman holiday for the people. Still men roared with blood lust as the gladiators fought.
Telemachus found his way to the Coliseum. There were 80,000 people there. The chariot races were ending; & there was a tenseness in the crowd as the gladiators prepared to fight. Into the arena they came with their greeting, “Hail, Caesar! We who are about to die salute you!”
The fight was on & Telemachus was appalled. Men for whom Christ had died were killing each other to amuse a supposedly Christian populace. He leaped down into the arena, & stepped between the gladiators, & for a moment they stopped fighting.
“Let the games go on,” roared the crowd. The gladiators pushed the old man in the hermit’s robe aside. Again he came between them. The crowd began to hurl stones at him. They urged the gladiators to get him out of the way.
The commander of the games gave an order. A gladiator’s sword rose & stabbed; & Telemachus lay dead. Suddenly the crowd was silent. They were shocked that a holy man should have been killed in such a way. Quite suddenly there was a mass realization of what they had done.
Historians tell us that the games in Rome ended abruptly that day never to begin again. Telemachus, by dying, had ended them.
Gibbon, the great historian, wrote of him, “His death was more useful to mankind than his life.” By losing his life he had done more than he could have ever done by living a life of lonely devotion out in the desert.
CONCL. This morning we offer you a cross. Not a life of ease, or a church that is perfect with all the solutions to your problems. We can’t guarantee you success on your job. We can’t promise that your marriage won’t fail. We can’t promise that you’ll stop having problems at home. All we really have to offer is Jesus Christ & his cross. Will you come as we stand & as we sing?