Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2004 : July 4, 2004
Lose Your Life to Christ
Pentecost 5
A famous coach once said, "It's not whether you win or lose that's important, but how you play the game." Now that's a very true statement because even if a team wins a game by bending or even breaking the rules or showing an unsportsmanlike conduct while they are playing, their victory will be tarnished. But we would still rather win than lose, right? This morning, though, Jesus wants you to be a loser. Jesus isn't just talking about a football or baseball game. Jesus is talking about something very important -- your very lives. Jesus wants you to lose your life for him. On this 4th of July, we like to think about the freedoms that we cherish in our country. We treasure those freedoms because of what so many gave up and continue to give up to secure those freedoms for us -— their very lives. It is no different for the Christian. But the Christian thinks even more about the freedom from sin that is ours through faith in Jesus. We remember what Jesus gave up to give us that freedom from sin -— his very life. But, strangely enough, when we are freed from our sins through faith in Jesus, we become bound in another sense -— bound to Christ, not free to live however we want, but our true freedom from sin consists in us being obligated now to live for Jesus. We become slaves to Jesus and his will for our lives -— and we would have it no other way. We lose our lives to Jesus. Jesus says it in a very vivid and striking way -— we take up our crosses as Christians. You know that Christ has taken his cross for you, so he wants you to take your cross for him.
First, let's look at why we would want to do something so drastic as to lose our lives for Christ -- it's because he has taken up his cross for you. In Luke chapter 9, we find Jesus alone with his disciples praying. He used the opportunity of being away from the crowds of people following him to ask a very important question of his disciples: "Who do the crowds say I am?"
Jesus, of course, knew the answer to that question. But he wanted to teach his disciples about who he had to be in order to be their Savior. The disciples answered with all kinds of things that the crowds were saying. "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life." Some would naturally think that Jesus was John the Baptist raised to life. They had the same message, "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near." But Jesus was not John. Others thought that possibly this great prophet from Nazareth who was performing so many miracles was Elijah who had also performed numerous miracles. Remember that Elijah had never actually died, but God had taken him to heaven in a fiery whirlwind. Still others thought that he was some other great prophet come back to life.
But Jesus was neither John, nor Elijah, nor one of the old prophets who pointed forward to the Messiah. So Jesus asked them not what the crowds were thinking, but what they were thinking. "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Really, a more important question has never been asked. And who else would you expect to speak for the disciples but Peter, who was always the first to rush in and say something on every occasion. But on this occasion Peter spoke words that we would like to hear on the lips of every sinner when they speak of who Jesus is. Peter answered, "The Christ of God." What a beautiful confession! Jesus was not the forerunner of the Messiah, he was the Messiah. Jesus was not just one of the great prophets; he was the Prophet, the Savior of the world that all the prophets pointed ahead to. This was the Christ of God, the Son of God and God the Son in the flesh.
Jesus was the Christ, the Anointed One, who had come to save sinners. The disciples knew they needed a Savior from sin, but they were not ready for what Jesus would have to do to be that Savior. So Jesus told them plainly, "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life." This was the first time that Jesus had told his disciples plainly what would happen to him. Jesus' whole reason for coming to this earth was to suffer and die to forgive all people their sins.
And we desperately need that forgiveness. Have you always given as clear of a confession about Jesus as Peter did here? When you are with your friends, is it obvious that Jesus is your leader? When you are by yourself and only you and God know what you're doing, do you give a great confession about how important Jesus is to you? When you are at work, do your co-workers know that Jesus is the most important person in your life? We've failed many times to give a great confession of who Jesus is to us, haven't we? Then we might think, "Well, I know that. But I've made up for the times I've failed by doing good things, telling people about Jesus, showing how he is my life." That's great, but God doesn't pat you on the back when you do good. He simply says, "That's what I expect of you." When you help a stranded motorist, it doesn't take care of the times you didn't help someone else. God expects you to help everyone. And the times you fail to do that, your sin remains.
We find ourselves stuck in our own web of sin just as surely as a fly in spider's web -- with no hope of escape. The more we squirm around in our sins and try to make up for them by doing good things, the more tangled up we become, with only death -- eternal death -- in our futures. How amazing, then, that God would send his own Son to suffer and die in our place! Every single sin that we commit gets us more and more tangled in Satan's web. But with one fell swoop, Jesus took away every sin that so easily entangles us. On the cross, Jesus shed his blood and suffered hell for us. He actually took our cross that we deserved. Jesus was there to deny himself all glory and instead to die a criminal's death. That is called the theology of the cross. The cross is not glorious; it is shameful. It is not full of honor and prestige; it is full of loathing and rejection. But God used something that epitomized horror and pain and suffering to take away an eternity of horror and pain and suffering from us. Jesus' payment on the cross paid the penalty we owed. We have no debt to pay when we stand before God for all our sins because Jesus already paid the debt in full -— no strings attached. No longer are we bound by a life of sin. Instead, because we wear the robe of Christ's righteousness that he earned for us with his perfect life, now are slaves of righteousness. Jesus, the Christ of God, has taken your cross of shame when he took his upon himself. Now he wants you to take your cross for him.
Jesus said, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." When Jesus talks about coming after him, he isn't talking about following him to his cross. Jesus was the only one who could have paid that price of his own holy and precious blood to pay the penalty for sin. But now because we have the forgiveness of sins through Jesus' blood, we will want to follow him with our entire lives. It shows how much our freedom from sin and the deliverance from an eternity away from God mean to us. That doesn't mean that we only follow Jesus on Sundays when we come to church. That doesn't mean that we only follow Jesus when it's convenient for us or for our schedules. It doesn't mean that we follow him only in the good times, or turn to him only in the bad times. But it does mean that we follow him with our entire lives -- on Sundays or when we are working at the factory or at the office. It means that we will set aside times to worship our Savior and want to hear his word regularly, not only in church but also at home. It means that even in the bad times, we are to show others that we have our complete trust in Jesus, even when it means ridicule because we are Christians. That is what taking our cross means.
Jesus then explains further what taking up your Christian cross means. He said, "For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it." If you try to save your worldly life by living the life of this world, then you will lose your eternal life. But if you purposely "lose your life," your worldly sinful life, and instead follow Christ, then you will save your eternal life that Christ has earned for you and given to you freely. The meaning of the words, "to lose," has the meaning of "to destroy." In other words, you aren't just sitting back passively as a Christian and hoping your life doesn't control you or get the best of you, but you are actively trying to destroy your sinful flesh; you are trying to kill it each and every day so that it doesn't get in the way of your devotion to Christ. Martin Luther said the same thing when he talked about baptism. He said that everyday we need to look on our baptisms and look at what happened there. On that day, your sins were destroyed, wiped out, gone, forgiven. Everyday we as Christians need to remember what we are and what the Holy Spirit did for us, and we need to drown our sinful flesh. Everyday we need to carry our cross for Christ. Jesus gave us the reason to do that -- he carried his cross for us, and he gave us the true freedom of forgiveness.
Many of you probably saw the movie, Saving Private Ryan. In it, Captain John Miller and seven others were sent to find Private James Ryan whose three brothers died within a few days of each other during World War 2. Six of the eight men died, but they accomplished their mission -— they saved Private Ryan, who was able to go home to his family and live. One of the most poignant parts of the movie was when Captain Miller was dying. With his last breath, he told Private Ryan, "Earn this." Those men's dying for him was James Ryan's motivation for living a good life, but years later he still never knew if he had done enough to earn such a sacrifice. You and I are not capable of earning the life that has been given to us by Jesus. Jesus simply gives it to us with no strings attached. And because Jesus paid the complete penalty for our sins with his death, there is no doubt whether it is enough -— it is -— because the Bible tells us plainly that it is. Jesus lost his life for you. How could we do anything other than lose our lives for him as an enduring thank you for what Jesus has earned for us?
When the Christ of God comes on the last day, may you be holding on to Jesus and his cross by which he gave you eternal life. And may you be carrying only one thing -- your Christian cross because you have lost your earthly life to Christ who has given you eternal life. Amen.
