What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what will a man give in exchange for his life?For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?For what shall a man be profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and forfeit his life? or what shall a man give in exchange for his life?
4 sermons cite this verse
… loses his life for my sake will find it. Then he says this massive line. What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life. Jesus is making it so clear that we can lose, but no one ever gets beaten out of their soul. They simply forfeit. And we do it in a bunch of different ways. We make little trades, right? We make little compromises. We make little exchanges. We forfeit. Or we violate the rules and we forfeit. Or sometimes we concede. Sometimes we just simply stop playing and we forfeit. And the question we hear is Jesus saying, what profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and yet forfeit his life? Another way to say it here at the beginning of school year is the reality is this. The reality is you can come, you can get everything you came to college to get and end up becoming someone you never wanted to become. You can do everything you came to college to do and end up becoming someone you never wanted to become. …
… All right, let's go to work. Matthew chapter 16, verse 26. We're going to look at two passages of Scripture that will be our anchor for this moment. Matthew 16 and 26, both of these are not unfamiliar. Then we'll look at 3 John 1 and 2. The Bible says, and most specifically Jesus says, for what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world? and loses his own soul. And then he goes on to say, or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? Will the prophet a man, if he gains the whole world, I mean the whole world, and loses his soul? or let's take it even further what can a man give in exchange for a soul in other words you got what you got and then in 3 John 1 and 2 the writer says beloved that's how I feel about y'all right now beloved I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health just as your soul prospers. …
… And whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it. Because what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? because what can a man give in exchange for his life? Because everyone who's ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, I'm going to be ashamed of him when I come in the glory of my father and the holy angels. so if you want to follow Jesus then you deny yourself and you take up your cross and you get behind him because because because because I'm going to linger here at the surface level of grammar and words for just a moment to make two points. first. If any graduates can read Mark 8, 34 to 38, and not see the four layers of argumentation that Jesus gives for following him, then in your case, we have failed. because that's what we do here. we have linked arms to learn how to see us what we do. …
… follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he's done. And this is God's Word. Now, Jesus, as we just mentioned, right here in the middle of this passage, says if you do this, this, this, and this, and this, you will find it. Find what? Well, in verse 25 and 26, over and over again, a Greek word is used, and it's the Greek word psyche, from which we get our word psychology, of course. And the translators translate it differently, so in a sense, it masks the fact that the word is being used so prominently. You see, in verse 25, whoever wants to save his life will lose it. …