Sermon from April 20, 2008
I hope you will bear with a personal hobby for a moment. Ever since I learned Greek at age 16, I have remained fascinated by words and languages. That interest carried over into Bible translation. Recently, I came across a delightful and suggestive word that was used to translate a New Testament word into Old English.

Matthew 17:13 reads like this in the NIV: Then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist. The Old English word for disciples a thousand years ago was leorningcnihtas. We may translate it as “knights of learning.” Even to our ears, mention of a knight, as in a knight of the round table, or a knight in shining armor, gives us pleasure. It seems like genius to take that image and make it describe the followers of Jesus, who learned from Him to serve an everlasting King.

Whatever emotions that word stirred in Anglo-Saxons a millennium ago, the everlasting King made it clear to His followers then and now that difficult learning lay ahead. You can see what I mean in Jesus’ call to discipleship in Mark 8:34.

Take Up Your Cross
Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” With no other introduction and with much needed explanation to come, let me get right to the point. The seventh habit of highly effective Christians is making personal sacrifices for the sake of Jesus Christ.

“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” You may remember that Jesus carried his cross to Golgotha. Most likely, He carried the crossbeam, whose Latin name was patibulum. That’s the image that would come, however briefly and reluctantly, to people’s minds, when He said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross.”

“Crucifixion was a powerful symbol throughout the Roman world. It was not just a means of liquidating undesirables; it did so with the maximum degradation and humiliation. It said, loud and clear: we are in charge here; you are our property; we can do what we like with you.” (Jesus and the Victory of God, 543).

Everyone could see that. Everyone agreed about that, and any other understanding was just whistling past the graveyard. Those who thought Jesus came to bring about a military revolution against the Romans may have heard this brief speech as a stirring call to make any sacrifice necessary in the battle against the oppressors of Israel.

As many of His leorningcnihtas have found out, He had no intention of raising armed revolt against the Romans, but He was serious about self-denial to the point of being ready to die in His cause. He offered two motives for our ready obedience.

Verses 35-37 express the first motive. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?  

The way into this motive goes through the two English words here: life in verse 35 and soul in verses 36 and 37. They translate the same Greek word. The KJV also used both words to translate the one Greek word. I’d like to try my hand at explaining why the English translation needs two words to express the meaning of one Greek word.

“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross.” Deny yourself to the point of being willing to die in my cause. That’s about life, the life I enjoy and don’t want anyone to tamper with, the life I am being asked to sacrifice with my eyes wide open and, if necessary, surrender to death for the sake of a Man I’ve never seen. Life is just the right translation in that statement, whoever wants to save his life. Saving my life is exactly what all my instincts tell me to do.

We try to save our lives in two ways. First, we can live as fearful people, always protecting ourselves from real or imagined dangers, unwilling to take risks in some great cause. If we do, we shrivel up inside. It is the idea of shriveling up inside that builds the bridge between the two English words that we need to express fully the Greek word they translate: “We shrivel up inside.”

We can live and go about our daily routine, but if all we care about is self-preservation, then inside, hidden from others, there won’t be much left. What is this inside that overwhelming self-preservation can wither? The word English translators have used for it for five hundred years is soul. That’s the word in the next two verses the translators chose to express what is at stake in Jesus’ call to discipleship.

They point out a second way we try to save our lives. Verse 36 says, “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?” People who gain the whole world do not shrink from taking risks. They are people of vision, ambition and boundless energy. Jesus is saying, “You can be people like that, but if you leave me out of your vision, ambition and boundless energy, you will shrivel on the inside as surely as the fearful man, who takes no risks.”

Let’s not miss the point. Jesus was saying then, and His words have lost none of their force, “If you are going to follow me, don’t stay on the sidelines. Don’t dabble. Don’t trifle with me. Risk your very self for me and the gospel, and you’ll find your soul, your true self,”

Verse 38 expresses the second motive for denying yourself to the point of being ready to die in the cause of Christ. If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”

Something profoundly simple informs this statement and sheds light back over all Jesus said in His summons to follow Him. If we call ourselves followers of Jesus Christ, then when the chips are down, let’s make sure people know whose side we’re on, regardless of the consequences. That can be risky. That’s what Christ was talking about.

Two Opposite Dangers
I think we need to stop and come up for air. This short speech catches some of the fire at the heart of Jesus’ life, and when you aren’t quite ready for it, it can be overwhelming. So, let’s step back and talk about two understandable but mistaken reactions to what Jesus said.

One reaction is to say, “He wasn’t talking to me. He was looking for volunteers on a high-risk mission. That’s not me.” Well, maybe not; but don’t miss the way verse 34 introduces Jesus’ speech here. Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples. The call didn’t go out just to insiders like the disciples. It went to the crowd, the mass of nameless men and women, who were drawn to Him. The fact that you are here today, when you could be somewhere else, makes you a candidate for the cause.

Think about it this way. If you say, “He wasn’t talking to me. That’s not me,” what you really mean is, “That’s not me the way I am today. I’m not that kind of person today.” Don’t be in too big a hurry to take yourself out of the picture. Stay with Christ, and you won’t be the same person tomorrow.

A second reaction to what Jesus said is to say, “It’s all or nothing with Him. There’s no middle ground. I’m either going to burn out or rust out, and if I follow Him, I’m going to burn out.” If that’s how you hear Jesus’ words, there’s a good chance you won’t do anything about it. This all-or-nothing feeling made sense to people who thought Jesus was calling for armed rebellion against the Romans. But He wasn’t.

All-or-nothing feelings of many kinds can do great damage to people. Being a disciple of Jesus is not unlike flying a plane; it’s 98 percent routine and two percent sheer terror. Jesus stated the two percent when He said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross.” He just wanted followers to know that could be part of the deal.

But in reality, sacrifice and self-denial have to do mostly with small actions, because life has to do mostly with small actions, actions that we can do but often don’t want to do, because they are just hard to do, they take us out of our comfort zones, risk personal embarrassment, or require sustained discipline.

Have you picked up a color chart lately at your local paint or hardware store? I got one a few weeks ago for the color white. There must have been 20-30 different shades of white. Responses to Jesus’ summons in this speech come in 50 shades of experience, from the very simple to “the last full measure of devotion” of the Christian martyr. But all along the spectrum the seventh habit of highly effective Christians will make personal sacrifices for the sake of Jesus Christ. Let’s look at a couple of options.

Sacrifices
Here’s one. Take these seven habits of highly effective Christians, and spend the next year working them into your daily routine. Remember! I said in the first of these sermons that the seven habits give us a standard to measure by and goals to shoot for. Just hearing a sermon on each barely scratches the surface

We’re talking about habits, patterns of behavior that become second nature. To become habits they will have to compete with other habits that we have protected and indulged for years, maybe decades. The old habits will not relinquish their hold on us without resistance.

You may need to download these sermons and study them. All the other sermons and Bible studies and Christian books and magazines you hear and read in the year ahead should help you develop these seven habits. You may need an accountability partner or a small group of like-minded believers to cultivate these habits.

Working the seven habits into your daily routine is an acceptable way of putting into action what Jesus called for when He said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross.”

Here’s another option. Be far more generous in a sustained way in the cause of Christ than you are today, generous with your time, money and skills. I’d like you to look at a principle of generosity that our Lord laid down. This may be new information to some of you. Prepare to be amazed. Look at Luke 6:38.

“Give (time, money and skills), and it will be given to you.” With God there is a culture of generosity. And here’s how it comes back to us. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. It sounds like we can expect to get more than we gave. Once we start giving away time, money and skills, it frees us up to start receiving time, money and skills in return.

Here’s the principle: “For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” If we give a thimbleful, we’ll get a thimbleful back. There’ll be more in the thimble we get back than in the one we gave, but it will still be just a thimbleful. If we give a quart away we’ll get a quart back. There’ll be more in the quart we get back than in the one we gave, but it will still be just a quart. You get the idea.

As God is my witness, Carole and I affirm the truth of our Lord's promise. I suspect many others in this church can do the same. Be far more generous in a sustained way in the cause of Christ than you are today, generous with your time, money and skills. It is an acceptable way of putting into action what Jesus called for when He said, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross."

The Pastoral Center of Gravity
I want to talk about a third way we can live out the Lord’s challenge, and this one we can do together in an unmistakable way. We begin Phase III construction in two weeks. That time period will make demands on all of us. It may at times get us down. Here’s a short list of some of the more obvious demands.

Some of us will worship in the McCrery auditorium. We’d rather not. The distance from Sunday classrooms is inconvenient. You don’t like the location. You may feel isolated. You who worship in the gym will need to be disciplined in how you enter and exit the gym. You will wonder where so many people come from. You who worship at 10:00 a.m. will get me live one week and on video the next, and if the video fails, someone will read the sermon.

Every week, for as long as it takes, we have to set up and take down everything we use at McCrery’s, Pilot School, and our own gym, sometimes at an inconvenient hour. Bad weather will make the task a little more unpleasant. We will have mess. Some of us will shuttle back and forth between this building and McCrery’s or between here and Pilot School.

Most of all, this unpleasantness interrupts our established patterns. It would be easy to say, “It’s not worth it!” and just stop coming. And you would miss the most exciting adventure in any church in New Castle County. And you would miss a golden opportunity to develop the seventh habit of highly effective Christians: making personal sacrifices for the sake of Jesus Christ.

Here are some sacrificial actions you can take. First, don’t leave. Stay! Stay and be glad that God is giving you the privilege of being part of this. Second, volunteer! Children’s ministry needs you. Student ministry needs you. Small groups and Christian education of adults need you. Set-up crews need you.

Third, give money! If you haven’t pledged or given to the building program, do it. If you don’t know how to do it, ask people near you; they can tell you. Give to the General Fund. Our ministries are not drawing back; we are going forward. We need cash.

Fourth, pray! Pray that we walk in the Spirit. Pray that we do the will of God. Pray that we love one another. Fifth, speak well of this project and of each other.