Then Jesus said to all of them, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.He said to all, “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.And he said unto all, If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
8 sermons cite this verse
… aren't we? Jesus said, if any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. What does that even mean? Oh, you're gonna take up the cross and follow Jesus. Great, what does it mean? A lot of people don't know. Sometimes people misuse that idea and they'll say, my cross to carry is my mother-in-law. and your mother-in-law says my cross to carry is my son-in-law or my cross to carry is this problem or my cross to carry is something else now i'll tell you what it means to carry the cross because it's the same for every person it means to die to yourself you say i don't know what that means it means resisting what everyone around you perhaps say would say is normal example it means being faithful to your spouse that you're married to for a lifetime. It means forgiving people who have genuinely wronged you. It means asking forgiveness from people that you have wronged. …
… want life in your praise and life in your relationships. This book is the key to life and life more abundantly. Luke chapter 9 and verse 23, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me daily. We're supposed to die to what we want and what we do. People who call themselves Christians, there's no cross in their life. Many of them, they don't ever think of denying themselves anything, whatever they want. But when Christ is the center of your life, you take up your cross daily. I live for him. I live to please him. I live to honor him. I need to constantly be in his presence because he is my daily bread. Listen to this great verse, Luke 19, verse 47 and 48. And he taught daily in the temple. Jesus made it a point to teach daily. The same teacher in the temple in Bible days today, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. And he waits to teach you. You have a personal helper and teacher and instructor called the Holy Spirit. He shall teach you all things. …
… Look at this. Luke chapter 9 verse 23. Jesus has got people following him. And so what does he say in verse 23? It says, he said to them all, if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world and yet lose or forfeit his very self? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of Him when He comes in His glory. In the glory of the Father and the holy angels. Listen to verse 27. I tell you the truth. Some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the what? Kingdom of God. You come after me. You deny yourself. Take up your cross. Follow me. You lose your life for the kingdom. Some of you will not taste death until you enter the kingdom of God. …
Hey, what's going on, everybody? Thank you so much for joining us for this week's message from Zoe Church. We are in a series we started last Sunday called Daily Devotion out of Luke 9, verse 23. We're going to jump in in just a moment, but I want to thank every person that likes and subscribes to our podcast. Thank you for posting and sharing the messages on social media, inviting people into our community, inviting people along the faith journey with us. Also, if you'd like to give today, go to our website and you can give there whether you want to give digitally or you want to give stock, crypto, however you'd like to give today in your tithes and offerings, go there to the website. But let's jump into this week's message called I Want to Know Him. Go in your Bible to Luke chapter 9. Luke chapter 9, go there in your Bible. We started a new series last Sunday called Daily Devotion. And we're trying to follow God not just on Sundays, but we're just as passionate about Jesus Monday through Saturday. …
… Now just remember you put your hand up. Watch what Jesus says, Luke chapter 9, verse 23. Then he said, Jesus said, Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross, how often? Daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it if someone gains the whole world and yet loses or forfeits their soul? Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the son of man will be ashamed of them when he comes in glory and in the glory of the father and of the holy angels. Go back up to verse 23. Whoever wants to be my disciple. Let me give you a working definition of disciple. A disciple is a wholehearted, committed follower of the teachings and the teacher. So let me just say that again. A disciple, anybody that's a disciple, is a wholehearted, committed follower of the teachings and the teacher, Jesus. So let me ask you one more time. Anybody want to be a disciple? Yeah, come on. That's all of our prayers. We want to be wholehearted. I don't follow God with half my heart. I follow God with all my heart. I am not halfway committed to Jesus. I'm all the way committed to Jesus. So I'm a wholehearted, committed follower of the teachings and the teacher. And he said, if anybody wants to follow me, they must pick up their cross. How often was it? Daily. What is your cross? Your cross …
… different. Invite Jesus in your life and you'll get what you want. No. Invite Jesus into your life and you'll get what He wants. That's submission. That's Luke 9.23. Any man come after me, let him deny himself, deny himself, hate his own life. These are the two barriers that our Lord puts up in this encounter. Barrier number one, he needs to understand the holiness of God and the sinfulness of his own proud, self-righteous heart, because repentance is required. And then he needs to be willing to give up everything, if that's what the Lord asks. That's like the parables in Matthew 13. Sell all to buy the pearl, which is a symbol of salvation. Sell all to buy the treasure in the field, another symbol of salvation. Are you willing to give it all up? Will you submit to the Lordship of Christ? You don't come to Jesus in order to get what you want. You come to Jesus in order to live the rest of your life receiving what He wants. …
… You're turning your back on everything. So, entering the narrow gate, Jesus is demanding essentially what He demanded in Luke 9.23. Deny yourself, take up your cross, that's the only thing you bring with you, is an instrument to be crucified on, and obey Him. On the other hand, you could choose the wide gate, easily found, easily marked, with all kinds of false teachers pointing you in that direction, lots of crowds, no difficulty, no self-denial, bring your baggage, bring your sin, bring your self-will, no repentance, no surrender, no submission to Christ. It's the gate of self-indulgence. It's for those who want a little religion, but religion that doesn't ask them to give up everything. Two gates lead to two ways. There is the wide way, or the broad way, in verse 13, and there is the narrow way in verse 14. Again, the same contrast. The broad way, you come through the wide gate, you bring everything with you, all your sins, all your tolerances. There are no curbs, there are no demands, nothing is forbidden. …
… in the field is Christ, and He was so valuable you gave up everything? When we say, you heard Luke 9.23, if any man come after me, let him what? Deny himself? Did you give it all up? Is there any other love in your life? Is Christ not the supreme and only love? You can love the Lord with all your faculties because that's what He does to you. We saw that. That's a new covenant salvation promise. So you look at what you used to be, it's pretty serious. Let me just give you a few words that you can use to describe this, and we'll hurry a little bit. Futility of mind, the first one. Futility of mind. What is that? Let's just call it selfish, selfish. In other words, you literally in your own mind spin out your own worldview. Oh, by the way, mind, understanding, learned mind all through this portion. It's all about how you think. But since, you know, our Lord said, all evil things proceed from within, Mark 7. …