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Take Up Your Cross
December 01, 2013
Our Savior and leader died on the cross to take away our sins. He has asked us to follow Him. We are to carry the instrument of our suffering and death, if required, in our retracing of His footsteps. We should not think it strange when we suffer for our faith. It is to be expected. Our reward is in heaven after this life. In the meantime, we have our brothers and sisters in Christ as a help and hedge against suffering.
Bernie Parsons
Take Up Your Cross
by Bernie Parsons
Presented to Globe church of Christ on 12-01-2013
In the last lesson, we looked at what happened to Jesus leading up to,
during and after His crucifixion. In this one, I want to discuss the fact
that the Christian life is filled with trials and troubles. Jesus told the
believers that they must take up their own crosses, and follow Him.
Mark 8:34 "And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples
also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself,
and take up his cross, and follow me.
35 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose
his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.
36 For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and
lose his own soul?
37 Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"
Jesus warned His disciples that they would face tribulations in this world.
John 16:28 "I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again,
I leave the world, and go to the Father.
29 His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest
no proverb.
30 Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any
man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God.
31 Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe?
32 Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered,
every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone,
because the Father is with me.
33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In
the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome
the world."
Our peace comes from being right with God, which often puts us at odds with
the world. In fact, the apostle Paul and his companions in Christ preached
that this was a given.
Acts 14:21 "And when they had preached the gospel to that city, and had
taught many, they returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch,
22 Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in
the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom
of God."
The kingdom of God is entered through “much tribulation”. Not a little bit,
a lot!
Romans 5:1 "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ:
2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and
rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that
tribulation worketh patience;
4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope:
5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our
hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us."
The apostle Paul not only recognized that tribulations would be a part of
the Christian life, but he embraced them as necessary and even productive by
leading to patience, experience and hope.
Romans 8:35 "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall
tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril,
or sword?
36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are
accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that
loved us.
38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate
us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
As Paul explains, tribulation, distress, persecution, peril, or the sword
are not enough to separate the believer from the love of God. Even death
itself cannot do that, he said.
2 Corinthians 1:3 "Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;
4 Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort
them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are
comforted of God.
5 For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also
aboundeth by Christ.
6 And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation,
which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also
suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and
salvation.
7 And our hope of you is stedfast, knowing, that as ye are partakers of the
sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation.
8 For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to
us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch
that we despaired even of life:
9 But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in
ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:
10 Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we
trust that he will yet deliver us;"
The apostle Paul and his evangelizing companions faced trouble wherever they
went. He – and they – were made to suffer troubles of various kinds, but he
counted the consolation and comfort that comes from Jesus Christ to be
adequate antidote to those sufferings that he endured.
If death is to be our lot, Paul wrote that we must trust God who can raise
us from the dead.
2 Thessalonians 1:3 "We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as
it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of
every one of you all toward each other aboundeth;
4 So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience
and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure:
5 Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be
counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer:
6 Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them
that trouble you;
7 And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be
revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,
8 In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey
not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
9 Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of
the Lord, and from the glory of his power;
10 When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in
all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that
day."
Though we suffer in Christ while in this life, God is aware of our troubles
and will one day trouble those who trouble us. And, with death looming
before us, so is the resurrection.
Philippians 3:8 "Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the
excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have
suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win
Christ,
9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the
law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God by faith:
10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the
fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
11 If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead."
In the meantime, we have this admonition:
Hebrews 12:11 "Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but
grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of
righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
12 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;
13 And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned
out of the way; but let it rather be healed."
Things go wrong in our lives, people sometimes oppose us, tragedy afflicts
us, and setbacks abound, but together we walk in Christ Jesus our Lord,
trusting God, relying upon our family in God, and persevering against all
the odds.
