Matthew 16:24-28
Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come
after me, let him deny himself and let him lift up and carry his cross and let
him follow me. For whoever should desire
to save his life will lose it. But
whoever should lose his life because of me will find it. For what will a man be accomplished in if he
should gain the whole world but he should be suffering the loss of his
soul? Or, what will a man give in exchange
for his soul? For the Son of Man is
about to come in the glory of His Father with His angels. And then He will recompense each according to
his deeds. Amen, I say to you that some
are the ones who have stood here should surely not experience death until they
should see the Son of Man who comes in His kingdom.
Thoughts for Today
First Thought:
Jesus tells us that the disciple should do three things in
this passage. They are not easy concepts
to hear:
- Deny himself. Denial means giving something up. What does Jesus tell us to give up? Jesus tells us to give up ourselves. We are to give up our earthly desires and our worldly pursuits.
- We are to lift up and carry our cross. Crosses are used to make sacrifices. In other words, the disciple who desires to follow Jesus lives a life of sacrifice. This is the natural next step after we deny ourselves.
- Finally, the disciple follows Christ. Once we give up ourselves we have to do something. If we aren’t pursuing our own agenda, we need to pursue something. Thus, we pursue Christ. We follow Him.
How good are you at denying yourself? Do you think you can live sacrificially if
you don’t deny yourself? Do you think
you can say that you are actually following Christ if you don’t deny yourself
and live sacrificially?
Second Thought:
Then we hear another very famous passage. “What is accomplished by gaining the whole
world if we lose our very soul? What is
the point of gaining every temporal thing that will eventually fade away? What in this world can give us happiness
forever? Jesus tells us this because He
knows that amount of challenge that He just gave in the opening sentence of
this passage. When confronted with the
difficulty of Jesus’ opening challenge, it would be easy to say, “I can’t do
that.” But the deeper truth is that
nothing else is worth pursuing! Even if
we cannot completely accomplish complete self-denial, self-sacrifice, and
following Christ there is no other pursuit that has the same level of payoff!
Do you find the challenge in the first thought deep and
difficult? Is there anything worth
pursuing other than following Christ?
Third Thought:
Then, Jesus adds a promise. He is coming back. Jesus is going to put God’s power on
display. Jesus is going to come and hand
out reward for those who follow Him. Of
course none of us can obey fully. We are
sinful! Neither can we follow at all
without His help. But even still, He is
coming back. He is coming to give each
of us the recompense that our following Him will earn. What a wonderful promise!
Do you hear the promise in Jesus’
words? Why is this promise necessary
considering the level of challenge that Jesus uses to open this passage?
Passage for Tomorrow: Matthew 17:1-4
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