Well, we return this morning to chapter 9, the gospel according to Luke. Luke has concluded his account of Jesus' public teaching ministry in Galilee. And Mark and Matthew go on and include accounts of a number of other events, healings, and teachings. But Luke proceeds on to another matter. Jesus has now gone across the Sea of Galilee and back into Galilee. He's gone up to Caesarea Philippi, to the far north near Lebanon. And Luke has now turned his focus to Jesus' preparation of the Twelve for their mission after He departs to return to His Father. And over the past few weeks, we've seen this recurring question, haven't we? Who is this man? Who's this man who's doing these things? He was performing miraculous works, works such as no one had ever seen before. News of him was spreading throughout the land. When he fed the 5,000, he revealed his creative power to the multitude. A crowd of 5,000 men, besides women and children, as many as 20,000 people maybe, were fed with a few loaves and a couple of fish. In his Gospel, Apostle John tells us that when the people saw the miracle, they said, this is truly the prophet who is to come into the world. Prophesied by Moses in Deuteronomy 18. After they had returned to Galilee, John 6, 35, Jesus said to the crowd, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst. And then in verse 47, "...Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life." So Matthew and Mark, as I said, after the feeding of the 5,000, they tell us that when they were in the villages of Caesarea Philippi and Jesus was alone with His disciples, He asked them, who do the people say that I am? And they answered just as they had in Herod's court. They answered, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah. And some believed that one of the prophets from the Old Testament had risen again. Now Jesus knew that nobody truly understood who He was at that point. And certainly few, if any, had come to believe He was God in human flesh. And it's clear that nobody knew the real reason why He had come. Nobody knew his true mission. And when he'd asked his disciples, Who do you say that I am? Well, we know who spoke up. Simon Peter. And Simon Peter answered and said to him, You are the Christ. You're the Messiah, the Son of the living God. The one for whom we've been waiting for centuries. Yet the promised Messiah. And Matthew records that Jesus said to him, Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood didn't reveal this to you of my Father who is in heaven. Nobody can know who Jesus is. Nobody can know Him except those to whom it has been revealed by God. And so though Simon Peter confessed Jesus as Messiah, it's clear that neither he nor any of the Twelve truly understood what this meant. They knew He was Messiah and did not understand what Messiah came to do. They didn't know His mission. We're going to see this in chapter 14, verse 27. So Peter makes this confession. And Jesus again warns them and instructs them, don't tell anybody. Now this is not an unusual thing. Jesus had done this often when He'd healed people. Don't tell anyone. Why not now? Why didn't He not want people to know He was the Christ, the Messiah? What's the connection here between Peter's confession and what Jesus is about to tell them about His impending murder and His resurrection? And this instruction to remain silent. Well neither our Lord nor Luke explains this to us. But I think we can understand what was going on here. Let's be mindful. The Jews were looking for a political, military Messiah. They were looking for somebody to liberate them from Roman rule. In John's Gospel, we see this is precisely what had occurred in response to Jesus having fed the 5,000. John 6, 14, when the people saw the sign which He'd performed, they said, this is truly the prophet who is to come into the world. Now look at verse 15. So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force and make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone. Jesus was not building a political movement, but that's what they were looking for. He doesn't want them to come and try to take Him and make Him king, at least not yet. People were looking for Messiah, but didn't realize what following the true Messiah meant. And now, in this passage, which is such a very important passage this morning, Jesus will tell the Twelve what it means to follow Him. Now the time had come for Jesus to plainly reveal His mission to the Twelve. Verse 22, the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed and be raised up on the third day. Before this, Jesus had alluded to His death and even to His resurrection. When He cleansed the temple the first time, remember what He said. He spoke of the temple of His body, which the Jews would destroy and which would be raised up on the third day. He'd said in Nicodemus, the Son of Man must be lifted up. But He was speaking in veiled terms. Now however, Jesus spoke plainly of His mission and of His death. Now this news must have been shocking to them. Like all the Jews, they expected the Messiah to bring earthly happiness. They looked forward to the point in time when Jesus would suddenly reveal His glory and the glory of His reign. This is what they're looking for. The last thing they were looking for was a shameful death on a cross. The most shameful of deaths. And particularly, This had to be shocking given the power that he had demonstrated. The authority and power he had demonstrated over everything. Sickness, disease, biology, chemistry, the weather. Over all things in the natural and spiritual worlds. And yet he says, I'm going to be handed over by the Sanhedrin to be crucified. So this all had to seem incomprehensible. They'd confessed Him as Messiah. And this is where His life will end? So in order to prepare them for their mission, it was necessary that Jesus tell him that this was how His reign would begin. It wasn't going to be one of earthly power, or magnificence, or riches. It wasn't going to begin with the applause of the world. And notice Jesus' words here. This wasn't just some plan that God came up with when he saw what had happened. No, no. The Son of Man must suffer and be killed and be raised. These things had to happen. Why? And how could one who was possessed of such great powers be overcome and defeated by these mere men, these Sanhedrin? Remember, He could have called down legions of angels, but He didn't. So I want you to look again at Jesus' words here. In these words, the eternal divine plan of redemption is wrapped up in this one verse. If the sins of anybody were to be atoned for, a man, a man had to suffer at the hands of his own people He had to be executed to atone for the sins of those He came to save. From both their sin and from eternal misery. Remember, the wages of sin is death. And He had to be raised again on the third day. Death had to be overcome. This is why the eternal Son of God became a man. To overcome death, the wages of sin. And in His divine nature, He could not rescue His people in this way. So to atone for humanity, He had to become human. The Son of Man must suffer and be killed and be raised. He had to become human. But He could not be conceived of the seed of Adam, which was sinful. So what? He was conceived of the Holy Spirit. Luke's already explained this. Angel said to Mary, the Holy Spirit will come upon you. The power of the Most High will overshadow you. For this reason, the Holy Child shall be called the Son of God. In the providence of God, this was the only way men could be saved from their sins. The Son of Man must, must suffer and be killed and be raised on the third day. The demands of the law required it. There has to be a just penalty for every sin. Look at John 3, 16. God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. In Acts 2.23, look what Peter says. This man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death. But God raised him up again. Doesn't this sound familiar? And this is the very thing Jesus said he was about to do. He put an end to the agony of death for us, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power. Didn't spare His own Son. He delivered Him over for us all. Romans 8, 32. In 2nd Corinthians 521, He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. This was the plan. And this plan required the willing obedience of the Son of God. Only by his own will did he become man. And only by his own will could they execute him. He had to let them do it. They could only execute him if he voluntarily submitted to it. John 10, 11. I'm the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. No one takes it from him. Look at Philippians 2. Beginning in verse 5, have this attitude in yourselves, Paul writes, which was also in Christ Jesus. So here's what Jesus' attitude was. He existed in the form of God, but He didn't regard equality with God a thing to be grasped. He was willing to set aside the divine glory for a time. He emptied Himself. He took the form of a bondservant and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, though He was rich. Indeed He was, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you, through His poverty, might become rich. Oh, there's the story of the gospel. There's the whole story. There's what was in God's mind. And it had been spoken of, foreshadowed, signified, and prophesied throughout the Old Testament. Isaiah 53, He would die to atone for the sins of His people. 53, 6, The Lord caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. So that's why He, the Son of Man, must suffer and be handed over by the chief priests and the scribes and be killed. He adds a word of comfort, hope here. But on the third day He'll rise again. But it's pretty clear in both Luke's gospel and Mark's. They failed to grasp that. What they heard was He's going to die. He's going to be killed. Now Luke doesn't record Peter's response to this news. But Matthew and Mark did. And I want to take a look at this. Remember what Peter did here. Matthew 16, 22. He took Jesus aside and began to rebuke Him. He's rebuking Jesus. Look, this plan isn't the one we're looking for. God forbid it, Lord. This shall never happen to You. Peter must have had some better idea to save us all. Jesus turned to Peter and said, Get behind me, Satan. You're a stumbling block to me. You're not setting your mind on God's interest. God's interest was to save His people. You're setting your mind on man's interest. Now one reason I wanted to look at this is because Peter's effort to keep Jesus from the cross shows the disciples' minds were fixed, like ours would have been, on the word of His death. They didn't really let that word of His resurrection register with them. We see it in Luke, I believe it's Luke 18, the disciples understood none of these things. Verse 34, they still did not know or understand the nature of His mission. We have to remember all of these apostles were not the foundations in these first couple of years. They became the foundation upon which the church was built. And the application for us here, this is also our nature. We tend to turn our thoughts to the things of this earth. We tend to look earthbound. And let this be a lesson. And this is really why I wanted to mention Peter's response here. Jesus has given us His Word to correct us in all these things. It's always there for us. for looking for truth. Peter was thinking of a worldly, fleshly man. But brethren, right thinking and true wisdom is only found in the Word of God. It's only found in the Word of God. You know, in Ephesians chapter 2, Paul speaks of three influences on our thinking, all of which are opposed to the ways of God and to the Word of God. He says, first, the course of this world, the world's wisdom, which we remember in the first two chapters of 1 Corinthians. Paul is telling them, look to the wisdom of God, not to the wisdom of man. And by the way, how is the world, the unbelieving world, doing by its way of thinking? How's it doing? Turning away from God's ways. And who inspires the thinking of this world? Well, that's Paul's second influence here. The prince of the power of the air. Satan, who from the garden of Eden right up until today and beyond, devotes his entire being and his entire existence to turning people away from God. That's what he does. And the third influence on human thinking that's opposed to the way of God is the lust of our own flesh. Our own inner desire for self-gratification and pleasure. And these three rule the thinking of fallen man. And this third is the one that Jesus is going to teach us about and warn us about this morning. Peter was being ruled by worldly thinking. And this shows us it's essential that we immerse ourselves in this treasure that we've been given. In the teaching, not of the fallen world, but of God and is given in His Word. And that we exercise our faith by living as His Word teaches us to live. Peter was still learning. He had his eyes turned on things of earth. And because his thinking was in accord with that of Satan and the world and his fleshly desires, Jesus said to him, what? Ever wonder why he said these words? Get behind me, Satan. Because he was thinking like Satan and the fallen world. And he was being moved by his own desires. That's all Satan. So Jesus responds to Peter with this word of rebuke. Nothing shall interfere with the eternal plan of redemption. Nothing. Jesus didn't come to rule over some little piece of real estate in the Middle East. He came to save sinners from every nation. All those chosen in Him before the foundation of the world. To save us. from our sin and from the eternal misery that our sins deserve. That's why He came, not to be some earthly ruler. Peter didn't understand yet. And the path, His path to glory and His path to our salvation was on a cross. It was on a cross. Who would ever have thought that this would be the way the Messiah would save His people. Well Jesus had more to say to them. Mark tells us now He summoned the crowd with His disciples. So He's spending more and more time alone with His disciples but He can't entirely keep the crowds away. He was saying to them all, verse 23 here, if anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me. So not only was Jesus going to the cross, but if anyone wants to follow Jesus and be His disciple, and share in heavenly glory, he too must take up his own cross. Not a cross to go to Calvary, but a cross nonetheless. Jesus' disciple must deny himself. Deny himself. Take up his cross daily. This verse is what describes the heirs of eternal life. And if that's true, then it's imperative we understand what Jesus is saying here. And that we do what Jesus is saying here, more importantly. Now we're not talking about salvation by anyone's works. No one can be saved but by the sovereign grace of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But our lives are the expression and the evidence of what we truly believe. Our lives are the expression and the evidence of what we truly believe. And the central tenet of discipleship in Christ is self-denial. This is in direct conflict with the sin nature with which we were all born. Our nature, the nature with which we were born, was to gratify ourselves from the time we're a baby. We're reaching out, gimme, gimme, crying that we be served. And here, especially in the Western world, fulfillment of every desire is what we're encouraged to pursue. It's gratification of self that is promoted in at least 99% of the advertising with which we are relentlessly bombarded every minute of every day. And you can't escape it by going from the television to the computer or the phone. It's everywhere. Gratify yourself. So what's it mean to deny oneself? Well it's the opposite. Self-denial has several aspects. First of all, it means controlling and subduing our lusts and desires, and especially our sinful lusts and desires. But not only our sinful lusts and desires, our desire for our own self-gratification. It means ceasing to promote our own predominantly selfish interests. Again, we're being transformed day by day from glory to glory. means promoting now the glory of God as new creations in Christ in everything we do. And I'm so glad Paul has given us these letters because in Galatians chapter 2, verse 20, he reflects I have been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And 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. 2nd Corinthians 517. Now hear this. If anyone is in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things have passed away. Are you a new creature since the Lord came and indwelled you? Behold, new things have come. Self-denial also means turning away from all reliance on our own so-called good works to save us. We all know people who think they're being saved, who think they're safe because they are living essentially a good life. Because they think they're good at ways they're bad. I know far more people who think they're being saved by their works than I know those who are believing in, trusting in Christ's sacrifice for salvation. Denying self. means depending on God alone for our salvation. And denying self means surrendering oneself to His instruction and to His discipline. And even to sharing in His afflictions, which we're going to look at in a moment. Jesus says if a person wants to come after Him, He must take up His cross and follow Him. It doesn't say if a person wants to come after Him, he must accept Him. No. It doesn't say He'll make you healthy and wealthy. Any search for those kind of notions in Scripture would be fruitless. He says take up your cross. Deny yourself. Take up your cross and follow Me. It doesn't say walk an aisle. Doesn't say fill out a card. Take up your cross, deny yourself, and follow me. These are his terms. They're not mine. It's a narrow gate. A narrow road that leads to life. The broad road leads to destruction. This is the first time the word cross appears in Luke's Gospel. Now there's a difference, a great difference between His cross and the cross to which He calls all of us. Our cross is not a literal cross in most cases, although for some of the apostles it was. Our sufferings don't atone for anybody's sin, including our own. But our cross is real. And let's not minimize Jesus' words with saying, like, we all have our cross to He wasn't talking about minor discomforts or minor annoyances of this life. And He's not talking about the suffering that the unbelieving go through. No. He's talking about willingly and voluntarily accepting whatever pain, shame, even persecution that may come upon every one of us because we're in Christ. He suffered. We're going to suffer. We have a cross to carry. He calls us to take up our cross daily. This isn't supposed to be easy. This is Jesus' rejection of easy believism. It's His work, but we're not left to just sit on the beach and wait till He returns. So those who heard him utter these words, imagine, they were crucifying people in those days. Rome was all the time. That's why this was the most shameful of deaths. They'd hang these men alongside the road without any clothes on. And they'd hang there sometimes for hours, sometimes for days. Taking up your cross meant you're going to be crucified. You took up a cross as a prelude to a crucifixion. They didn't sit there and think, oh, my cross is the dryer isn't working today. No. Air conditioner's off. No. He's talking about death to our old way of life. He's saying that discipleship is a whole new way of life. It's a death to selfishness and to all forms of self-seeking. And it's a life now of self-sacrifice in His name to the glory of God. That word love, you know, it shows up all over Scripture. And then it shows up all over the world. Love tends to mean, you give me great gratification and satisfaction. But love is the self-sacrificial giving of oneself for the benefit of someone else, regardless of whether they deserve it or not. And regardless of whether you get anything out of it. That's Scriptural love. And that's what He showed us in going to the cross. So the perseverance of the saints, we talk about this. It consists in willingly bearing the cross or crosses which He has laid on each one of us. Every one of us has things that trouble us, that cause us grief and pain. And He calls us to bear those crosses willingly, even joyfully, for His sake. as the word daily. So that we're going to know. He calls us to deny ourself daily. Deny that old self. And he wants us to know, Calvin says, there'll be no end to our warfare until we leave this world. When some afflictions have run their course, we should be prepared for some new ones. Look at 1st Corinthians 15, verse 31. I don't know if Paul's writings have anything that's more applicable to us than these passages we're looking at here this morning. I affirm, brethren, he says, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. I die daily. Christ didn't limit these words to the twelve. You know, He's using the terms anyone. Not you. Direct address to them. If anyone wishes to follow me. So don't be surprised. I mean, none of us enjoy these crosses. But this is His design. Take up our cross. Now I want you to look. Chapter 14 of Luke. Verse 27, hear the word of the Lord, whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. So earthly prospects of a disciple are not all that attractive. But remember, He hasn't left us on our own. However heavy our crosses might be, He helps us to bear it. And we have to reject any idea or any notion that anyone's able in his own power to deny himself, take up his cross, and follow the Savior. This is what He's equipped us to do by His grace, by new life. Without being born again, though, the Spirit of God, this is impossible. But to the praise of the glory of His grace, the Spirit doesn't leave us to our own resources. Once a man has been reborn, the Spirit of God remains with you forever, enabling us to do that which we could never do in our own power. And by the way, He calls every one of us to help one another through our troubles. To encourage one another. Again, this word, daily. stimulate one another to love and good deeds. Look at Hebrews 3.13. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called to day, so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. So verse 23, what we may paraphrase this way, if anyone wishes to be counted as my disciple, Jesus said, he must once and for all say farewell to his old self, and he must willingly accept pain, shame, persecution for his sake and for his cause daily. And must subject ourselves to his discipline daily. An unbeliever might ask the question, well wait a minute, why should any of us do what Jesus commands here? Maybe even we would have this question in our minds. Why this way? Well, He's our Lord. That's one answer. That's a correct answer. But now He tells us why this matter is of eternal consequence. Now if you're resisting what he said to this point, read these words. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it. Whoever loses his life for my sake, he's the one who will save it. He hasn't changed the subject and the stakes could not be higher. You want to save your life? Then you must lose your life. Meaning, you must depart from the old self for His sake. He presents us with a contrast here between dying to our old self, to our fleshly desires on the one hand, and the eternal death of our soul, if we don't, on the other. Look at these words. Whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. Do you want to live forever in glory with God? I trust you wouldn't be here if you didn't. And if you do, then you must respond to His grace in willing obedience to Him, in service to Him, and to His church, in service to the cause of the gospel. Paul said what? I do all things for the sake of the gospel. That's what Paul did. And I want you to listen now to the words of the apostle. It's not in your Scripture sheet. Just close your eyes and hear these words from the apostle. Philippians 3, 7, But whatever things were gain to me, please don't miss this. Whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish, so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Him, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Now brothers and sisters, I certainly don't know how to say it any better than that. But this is what it is to lose one's life for Christ's sake. And finally, Jesus asks, for what is a man profited if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? Matthew and Mark include similar words. Matthew 16, 26, For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give? What will you give in exchange for your soul? We'll talk about people selling their soul to the devil. It's not fiction. People do it every day. Man may obtain great wealth, material possessions, earthly power and influence, pursuing his own pleasure, his own wealth. He imagines that wealth and possessions and pleasure, prestige, fame can bring him contentment, can bring him inner peace. When we fulfill the lusts of our flesh, what we do is shrink our soul. We squeeze out the soul. Because the flesh is at war against the soul. Galatians 5.17, the flesh lusteth against the spirit. This is a war, folks, between these desires of our flesh and the reawakened spirit that's in us. These are contrary to one another, Paul says, so that you cannot do the things that ye would. Romans 8.6, For the mind set on the flesh is death. This is what Jesus is saying here. You want to save your life? You want to wrap it all up in these things of the world? You'll lose your soul. The mindset on the flesh is death, but the mindset on the Spirit is life and peace. Because the mindset on the flesh is hostile toward God. It does not subject itself to the law of God. It isn't even able to. This is why Jesus said to Peter, get behind me Satan. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. And the man who pursues the desires of the flesh, he will lose his soul. Please hear these things. He will lose his soul because he has not sought the fulfillment of that which he needs most, his spiritual need. And that can only be fulfilled in and by Jesus Christ. And so for that man, his soul is lost forever. You see, lost men, men who are of the flesh, are so strongly attached to the world and the things of this world. So much occupied with the things of this world. They fail to consider why we were born, why God made us. They fail to consider that God gave us an immortal soul. Why? Why did He make us and give us this immortal soul? So we could try to pile up as much stuff as we could? No. He did it so that when our earthly course is finished, we might live in eternity with Him in the glory of heaven. That's why He made us to live in fellowship with Him in glory. Used to be, it seems, People understood the soul was of higher value than all the riches and enjoyments of the world. But the more time goes on, it seems men are so blinded by their carnal desires that they just willingly, knowingly abandon their souls to destruction. What are we doing here? Are we just here for our own pleasure? Are we pursuing the pleasures of this life? Or are we pursuing eternal glory? Jesus said, no man can serve two masters. You can't do both. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. Jesus Christ, 28 AD. One could amass all the world's wealth. And there are people who seem to be trying to do it right now. One could avail himself of all the world's pleasures for the 90 years he's on this earth. And at the very moment that God withdraws the breath of life, he's left with what? Nothing. He's left with nothing. His conscious existence goes on, by the way. Every man is an eternal spirit inhabiting one of these bodies. But those who spent their entire life in this earthen jar gratifying themselves are left with nothing but misery. In that same Sermon on the Mount, Jesus exhorted His disciples, store up treasures in heaven. Matthew 6, 19, do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourself treasures in heaven. where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. So if one desires to serve his fleshly lusts, the fulfillment of the desires of his flesh, he will forfeit greater heavenly blessings. But those who look forward, who fix their eyes on eternity, who, like Abraham, look for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God, these will find life. One man said this, the Christian must realize that he's given life, not to keep it for himself, but to spend it, as Christ did, for others. not to husband its flame, but to burn himself out for Christ and for men." And you know, the irony of it all, and I trust we've all had this experience, the greatest pleasures in this life are those encountered when we live in pursuit of heavenly glory. Service to Him and to the brethren. Well let us pray. Lord, we thank You for this clear Word. We thank You that You teach us what it is to be Your disciple. Lord, we acknowledge that we only can know You. We can only hear and understand these things by Your grace. That You have saved us by Your grace. But Lord, You call us to a life of submission to Your will now. You call us to serve You and obey You as Lord. And I pray, Lord, that You deliver this word into our hearts and our minds in power. By the working of Your Spirit, in Christ's name,