Steve Gentry
[0:00] Hello again. Just for a moment, I just want to ask that you pray with me. [0:04] Father, I come before you right now. I just want to echo James’ prayer, God.
[0:13] Lord, I pray this morning that you would open up our hearts, open up our minds, [0:18] open our eyes so that we could see your glory. [0:22] So that we could see the glory that you offer us through your Son. [0:27] Through His sacrifice more than our own. [0:32] God, that you would grant us the sight to see your grace, [0:37] to be drawn in by your just awesomeness this morning.
[0:44] That you would reveal your Word to us, God, that you would open it so that we could see. [0:50] Spirit, I pray that you would come and fill us and speak to us through your Word [0:54] so that we could live lives that would bring you glory through the Gospel of your Son, Jesus Christ. [1:02] In His name I pray, Amen. [1:04] If you have your scriptures, go ahead and open to Luke chapter 9. [1:09] We’re going to spend this week and next week unpacking some of the more, I would say,
[1:16] harder words in scripture for us to not just understand, but more than that, [1:22] the harder words for us to actually see, take root in our lives, [1:26] and to actually give up the life and to see the life that Jesus really wants to pour into us [1:33] so that He can then push out of us into the culture at large. [1:38] And so today we’re going to look at Jesus and the fact that He tells us that at a point in our lives [1:45] and throughout the rest of our lives, we must come to a place where the fact that He is God
[1:50] is more than just some academic understanding, but rather it translates into our lives [1:57] to where we see ourselves doing this thing that He calls taking up our cross and following Him. [2:03] And then next week what we’re going to do is we’re going to go a little further into the book [2:07] and we’re going to take a look at a section where He says probably some of, really what has been [2:12] some of the most impactful language that Jesus uses in the Gospel accounts in my life, but more [2:17] than that, some of the language that is probably the most offensive to my humanity.
[2:23] And we’re going to take a look at that next week. [2:25] But today we’re going to be in Luke 9 and we’re going to start in verse 18. [2:28] And Luke 9 falls at an interesting place in the book of Luke. [2:32] The book of Luke is one of the Gospels. It’s one of the synoptic Gospels. [2:36] But what it is, is it’s this look at the humanity of Jesus throughout the four Gospels. [2:43] We have a little different peek into the person of Jesus and each author looks at kind of a little
[2:50] different aspect of who Jesus is. And in Luke, Luke authors this book to show us the humanity [2:57] of Jesus and shows Him really more being 100% man as He’s fully man and fully God. [3:04] We get to see who He is as a person, but because of that, He makes some of the harder claims for [3:11] what we will do in the belief in the Gospel. And where we find ourselves this morning is [3:18] almost at a halfway point through the book where Jesus is not simply being with disciples and [3:24] teaching disciples, but they’re beginning to see Him do some fascinating things that are really
[3:30] otherworldly, is the best way to put it. They’re beginning to see His deity. They’re beginning to [3:37] see the God side of Him. In Luke chapter 8, right before where we are this morning, [3:42] He heals a woman that’s had a blood affliction for years. And then more miraculously than that, [3:50] He raises Jairus’s daughter from the dead. And then right after that, Luke records that He [3:57] feeds 5,000 people with just a little small portion of food that’s enough for one person. [4:03] And so following all of this, Jesus is walking with His disciples and He begins to ask them a
[4:10] few questions about who they think that He is. And He begins by asking them, who does everyone [4:18] else say that I am? Because His ministry at this point was not isolated to only Him and His close [4:26] followers, but rather it’s become quite public. You can’t really feed 5,000 people and that not [4:30] a public event. So now all of the people in the surrounding area are beginning to see Jesus is [4:39] more than a mere rabbi. And Jesus begins to ask, well, who is everyone thinking that I am? [4:49] And where He’s going to go today, and I just want to go ahead and set this up for you.
[4:53] The reason that we’re calling this week and next week, just a small short two week series, [4:57] we’re calling it sacrifice, is because what we’re going to see is where does who Jesus is [5:04] take our lives? What kind of life does living in the face of that reality, what should that and [5:14] what must that cause, not only inside of us where it changes our feelings and it changes our [5:21] understanding and it changes our beliefs, but rather what does that affect going outside of [5:26] ourselves, going into our actions, going into our daily lives, going into the way that we make
[5:32] decisions, and going into the way that we make the larger decisions about what we’re going to do [5:36] with our lives? What does the fact that Jesus is God do to that? Because when we’re all born, [5:45] and we begin to grow up, we begin to have this thing called ambition. And we all have dreams. [5:52] I know that when I was a young guy, my dreams were to either play third base [5:57] for the Oakland A’s. I grew up during the era of the Bash Brothers.
[6:03] Obviously some of you are ignorant to who the Bash Brothers are, [6:06] Jose Kinseko and Mark McGuire. And it was also during probably what we’ll look back in many [6:13] years as the greatest era of mankind. It was the Hulk Hogan and Macho Man era. [6:21] So the way I saw it when I was a child is I had two career paths that were pretty good potentials. [6:28] Either professional baseball player in the major leagues or professional wrestler. I mean, [6:32] I was kind of signed me up. I’ll wear the tights. Now you don’t want to see me in tights now,
[6:37] but it wouldn’t have been so bad when I was a little kid. All right. So this was my ambition. [6:43] This is what I said I’m going to start saying my prayers and taking my vitamins, brother, [6:47] because these are the possibilities and this is the potential that my life has. [6:52] And this is where I’m going. And so I had these grand dreams and these great ambitions [6:58] of I was going to take over the world through these two avenues. And when we’re young, [7:04] each and every one of us have something. Typically in this culture, it involves
[7:09] professional athletics, but most of us never see that materialized. So what happens as we get older [7:16] is our dreams become what we see as a little more realistic and then a little more realistic. [7:21] And then, well, we settle for a little bit less ambition and a little bit less ambition. And then [7:26] we have family. And then our ambition is all wrapped up into who our family is and what we [7:33] can do for our family. And I have just entered into that with my first son. And so now my ambitions [7:41] are becoming wrapped up into who he is and who he’s going to become. And what part
[7:47] am I going to play in that? But it’s a funny thing about ambition. When we begin to have [7:55] ambitions about the trajectory of our lives, we begin to look at what our life actually looks like. [8:02] And if we’re going to see our ambitions come to fruition, we must necessarily begin to make [8:10] sacrifices. You hear athletes and entrepreneurs and business tycoons constantly talk about the [8:20] sacrifices that it takes. For athletes, it’s a sacrifice of hours and hours of physical activity [8:28] and practice and nutrition. And they build their entire lives around throwing a ball.
[8:38] If you’re in business, it’s hours and hours of whatever they do. I don’t really know. Just kidding.
[8:48] But for mothers, when I get to watch this firsthand, it’s hours and hours of taking care [8:55] of a child that’s absolutely dependent on you. For a teacher, it’s hours and hours of classroom [9:02] activities and grading. And I’ve done that and I’ve been there. And wow, it’s a lot of work. [9:08] Something I try to avoid. But for all of us, no matter where we are in life, we have some kind of [9:17] ambition. Even if it’s simply to wake up every morning and play golf, you have a golf ambition. [9:24] And you’re sacrificing one thing so that you can be out there on the golf course.
[9:29] No matter what you choose to do in and with your life, you are sacrificing something else [9:37] so that you can have this thing. For some of us, it even goes really deep inside of us to where [9:45] because of our guilt or because of our resentment, we sacrifice relationships. That could be beautiful [9:55] because we don’t want to forgive or we don’t want to be and we don’t feel that we can be [10:00] forgiven. So we sacrifice. Every decision that you make in your life brings about a little bit [10:09] more sacrifice. And then sometimes we get into our life and right now I’m just entering into my 30s
[10:18] and then we look back and say, wow, look at what the sacrifices have brought me to. And sometimes [10:25] it’s like, that’s good. It’s been worth it. And sometimes it’s like, I could really use that time [10:30] more wisely. Maybe the PS2 wasn’t worth the sacrifice. But what we’re going to see in Luke 9 [10:41] is Jesus is going to show the disciples and really show us that in light of who he is, [10:56] great sacrifice must be made. Ambitions must change because who he is changes everything.
[11:14] And ambition is a funny thing because sometimes you have these ambitions and sometimes you miss [11:19] out on ambition. And when you finally get to what you were so ambitious for, you hate it. [11:29] You change your mind. CS Lewis, brilliant apologist, philosopher, and theologian, [11:39] in speaking about what humans tend to be ambitious for and looking at human ambition, [11:46] he made this statement. We’re half-hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition [11:54] when infinite joy is offered us. Like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum
[12:02] because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
[12:19] And for this week and next week, what we’re really going to do is we’re going to take a look at [12:24] selfish and sinful ambition. And then we’re going to look at what does that look like in the face [12:31] of gospel ambition and the life that God has for us through his son Jesus. [12:41] And I know that there was a certain point in my life when I was brought face to face with this [12:45] and it was really humbling and it was life altering for me because I realized how weak [12:56] and petty even as an adult my ambitions often are. Let’s go to Luke 9. Start looking at verse 18.
[13:14] Now it happened that as he was praying alone, the disciples were with him and he asked them, [13:21] Who do the crowds say that I am? And they answered John the Baptist. But others say Elijah. [13:29] And others that one of the prophets of old has risen. So understand that where we are is this [13:35] place where Jesus has done these momentous miracles. And the crowds and the populations [13:43] are seeing him work these amazing miracles. They’re seeing him feed five thousand. They’re [13:49] seeing him heal the sick. They’re seeing him heal the lame. They’re seeing him heal the blind.
[13:54] They’re seeing him raise people from the dead. And Jesus says in light of all of this guys [14:02] to his closest followers, who does everybody think I am? And what the disciples are hearing is that [14:12] people can’t get past their humanity. They’re saying he’s John the Baptist or he’s Elijah [14:16] or he’s some other prophet possibly Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel.
[14:24] And then Jesus turns on them and he says, but who do you say that I am?
[14:32] And Peter who is always, if you notice one trend throughout the Gospels, Peter is always the one [14:37] to speak first. Sometimes it gets him in trouble. Here not so much. But Jesus’s response to what he [14:44] was looking for, because Peter was always kind of looking. If he had this ambition to be numero uno [14:50] disciple, it would appear. And so I don’t think Jesus’s response is really what Peter was looking [14:56] for. And Peter answered, the Christ of God. And he strictly charged and commanded them to tell [15:05] this to no one, saying, the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and
[15:11] priests and scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised. So Jesus looks to the disciples [15:20] and he says, who do they say that I am? And then he makes it personal and he says, okay, who do you [15:25] say that I am? And Peter, his response is always, well, I’m ready for the pop quiz teacher. I know [15:31] who you are. You’re the Messiah. You are the one that’s been prophesied to come. You are the Christ [15:37] of God. And in the vernacular of the day, what that means is you are the one that God will send, [15:44] but you are also God himself. And so Jesus has now been worshiped for who he is really in his
[15:56] public ministry for the first time. Peter has looked and responded and said, Jesus, you are God. [16:07] And Jesus’s response is not high five. You get an A plus. Jesus strictly charges Peter, [16:13] which this must have been an uncomfortable charge for someone who’s such a chatterbox [16:19] like I am as well. Don’t tell anybody because I have a plan. And so what he’s really doing is [16:28] Jesus is saying, you have given me authority over your life. You’re saying I’m God because I have [16:34] authority. This is what it’s going to look like from here on out. And we’re not going to go in
[16:39] and I’m not going to set up a kingdom that you’re going to want, but rather guess what? [16:43] I’m going to go and I’m going to die. I’m going to suffer. They’re going to accuse me. [16:51] And they’re going to kill me. But I’m going to raise from the dead. Arise.
[16:57] And so we have here the most significant part of the gospel message, this good news that you can [17:07] really understand in your life, and that is Jesus is God. But what Jesus is really doing is he’s [17:14] beginning this precursor for what the gospel message is going to look like once he’s ascended [17:19] up to heaven. And he’s making them understand that Jesus himself is the centerpiece. [17:26] Of the gospel.
[17:33] Many of us, especially in this culture, really if you ask someone what the gospel is, [17:37] yes, 10 people, you probably get 10 different versions.
[17:43] But this one parallel that must for this, for our understanding of the gospel to be true, [17:48] it must include Jesus. But not only that, what Jesus is unpacking here is he’s unpacking [17:56] himself as the centerpiece of the redemption of man because he is God.
[18:06] He is the one that has been promised throughout the history of Israel to come [18:12] for the full redemption of Israel. And Jesus is unpacking the key component to the message [18:21] of the gospel, and that is his very deity. In Colossians, Paul puts it this way.
[18:33] He’s the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. [18:38] For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, [18:44] whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through [18:50] him and for him, and he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
[18:58] Peter probably doesn’t even understand the significance of what he has just said, but [19:06] Paul unfolds it there in Colossians. That the fact that Jesus being God is so important [19:14] is number one, he’s standing there as a human being. And what Peter is actually professing [19:23] is that he is the sovereign God over all of creation. Everything that exists, exists because [19:32] he spoke it into existence. Everything that is, is maintained because of his sovereign hand. [19:43] He is coeternal with the Father. He is the third part of the Trinity. Jesus is God.
[19:55] And if we miss that and go forward to finding ambition without that key component, we have lost everything.
[20:09] Because that is the basis by which life itself was formed. That is Paul’s point in Colossians. [20:17] Life has its meaning because of who Jesus is.
[20:29] If what Peter proclaimed there in Jesus accepted, because he did not rebuke it, Jesus accepted his proclamation.
[20:39] If that is true, then that must change all of our lives.
[20:49] If it is not true, the gospel is a treacherous lie and must be avoided at all costs.
[21:01] If Jesus is not God, then the gospel is poison.
[21:08] So if we go about life in such a way that we in our minds and in our circles think that the deity of Jesus and the fact that he is God is an insignificant aspect,
[21:24] we’re really denying the whole gospel because without it the gospel is a lie.
[21:31] This is the key difference between our faith and almost all others.
[21:42] This is really the dividing line because we don’t believe Jesus ever came into existence. We believe that he always was. [21:53] That’s what it means to be eternal.
[21:59] What Peter is proclaiming here is really the most magnificent point of history.
[22:09] That God became man.
[22:18] Jesus takes it further and then he prophesies the gospel. Jesus is found here. He is preaching the gospel. [22:26] And that without him we have nothing. [22:30] But he takes it further. Go back into Luke 9.
[22:35] Verse 21. [22:38] Excuse me, in verse 23.
[22:41] He proclaims what he’s about to do. He prophesies and then he looks to the disciples. [22:47] And he said, [22:49] If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. [23:00] For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. [23:09] And this is often where we go into and we begin to simply look at what practical application this is going to have in our life. [23:20] And you got to use this as an inspirational verse so that you can take up your cross.
[23:25] And rarely do we slow down for enough time to understand the implications of what Jesus is talking about to himself.
[23:35] The first thing you need to understand about verse 23. [23:38] And this is one of the really popular verses. [23:41] You’re going to find it on coffee mugs and t-shirts. [23:43] You go to Lifeway and you’re going to find a little plaque you can hang on your wall. [23:47] And this is one of the big ones for most moms out there. [23:52] So you got to go get your plaque for this.
[23:55] But let’s slow down and understand. [23:57] The first part of this is that Jesus demands sacrifice. [24:02] I want you to understand that Jesus is demanding sacrifice here.
[24:09] But let’s slow down and take a look at chronologically where Jesus is when he’s saying this. [24:15] We understand this verse in light of what Jesus did. [24:20] He died on the cross. [24:23] He was executed. [24:25] He rose from the dead. [24:26] And so now, 2000 years later, we look back and understand that that’s what Jesus did.
[24:31] So now he is an example for us to follow. [24:35] But let’s take ourselves back and understand that we’re disciples standing in front of Jesus himself. [24:41] And Jesus has not done that yet.
[24:45] The audience that he’s talking to is an audience that has not seen the crucified Savior.
[24:51] Jesus is continuing his prophecy.
[24:58] He’s making it external to where it is a demand of sacrifice. [25:03] But understand, he is also prophesying about himself. [25:08] He uses the analogy and the word picture of the cross because that is what he is going to go do. [25:16] Later on in the chapter, in verse 51, I believe it is, Jesus actually then, after another series of miracles, [25:23] the scriptures record by Luke, says that Jesus then set his eye to Jerusalem.
[25:30] Where he knew that he was going to go and face sure death. [25:34] So when you’re reading this, do not read this in a moralistic way. [25:41] That in order to earn my keep in the gospel, I must live a stoical life where I deny my pleasures [25:50] and deny my joys and deny myself worldly fun so that I can have acceptance before God. [25:58] Because that is not what Jesus is saying. [26:01] Jesus never makes a requirement that he himself does not fulfill on our behalf.
[26:12] And so he is saying this before he himself goes and literally takes up a cross.
[26:20] He then goes and dies on it.
[26:26] But I can imagine being one of the disciples so vastly confused by what Jesus is saying.
[26:38] And then seeing Jesus on the cross.
[26:42] And then saying, I now understand.
[26:50] I now understand what he was saying.
[26:55] Because only in light of what Jesus himself did soon thereafter,
[27:07] do we have any hope ourselves of living this type of reality.
[27:17] Because if Jesus was simply making a command for us to follow,
[27:28] how much would we fail? [27:30] It’s not would we fail. [27:33] You can answer that. [27:34] Yeah. [27:36] I often fail at this.
[27:39] How big would that failure be? [27:42] Because it would be fruitless and frivolous. [27:45] For Jesus, who has just been professed as the eternal God outside of history, [27:51] author of scriptures, author of life, [27:54] for thousands of years, [27:56] looking at Israel.
[28:01] Looking at them have command after command. [28:04] Looking at them fail time and time again. [28:08] And then coming back. [28:11] Coming as a man. [28:12] And then looking at more Jews. [28:15] And say, okay, here’s another command.
[28:20] He’s not stupid. [28:22] He knows this is something they’re going to fail at.
[28:27] And because of that, he himself must be the fulfillment of this verse [28:33] for there to be any hope in the gospel at all. [28:36] And for there to be any hope in our lives where the gospel is concerned at all. [28:39] Jesus must himself be the fulfillment of the one who takes up his cross and dies.
[28:51] And he demands a sacrifice. [28:55] But then he himself offers himself over as that sacrifice.
[29:05] Folks, that’s the hope of the gospel.
[29:08] If you can’t this morning grab a hold of that aspect [29:13] and understand that you are going to fail at taking up your cross,
[29:19] you can’t do it. [29:21] It’s too heavy.
[29:25] You can try. [29:25] You can think I’m wrong and go out the door and try [29:28] to live a life where you can earn your keep by taking up your cross [29:32] and denying yourself and following him.
[29:36] But we are hopeless.
[29:43] So he demands the sacrifice and then he himself is the fulfillment of that sacrifice. [29:51] So what aspect, what part do our lives play in this call to sacrifice? [29:58] We see that he tells us to take up our cross to follow him.
[30:04] Do it daily even. [30:07] But then he says some very interesting things in verse 24.
[30:12] We’ll look back real quick.
[30:15] For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. [30:22] I want you to just slow down for a moment and understand what Jesus is saying here. [30:28] Jesus is saying that the call to the gospel is this call to death. [30:33] It’s a call to give up absolutely everything that you define your life by. [30:40] A call to just lose all hope that you have in yourself or in your system of living. [30:48] Or in the life that you have set up.
[30:50] And he says come with me and die. [30:55] This is not the most pleasant or attractive of gospel please. [31:01] I don’t think. [31:02] Because all of us have lives that we wake up every day and we cling as hard as possible to. [31:09] From what we would say is the most attractive of life to the most denigrated and unattractive of life. [31:15] All of us are clinging to something that we’re building our lives around.
[31:20] What Jesus is saying here is if you have any hope of following me you must give that up. [31:29] Why? How could he make such a demand if he himself is the fulfillment of it? [31:35] And we’re hopeless to follow it. [31:37] Here’s how. [31:39] I want you to understand that when he calls us to die. [31:44] What he is saying is that ambition must die.
[31:50] To the gospel.
[31:54] He’s not simply saying this little thing about moralism and our morality. [32:00] And that we gotta stop doing all these bad things. [32:04] Gotta obey the law. [32:05] We gotta stop drinking. [32:06] Gotta stop smoking. [32:07] Gotta stop looking at R rated movies.
[32:10] Because God does not like those things. [32:13] And so that’s what death looks like. [32:14] That is not what the gospel call to die looks like. [32:17] That’s not what Jesus is talking about. [32:18] Jesus is going to the very root of who we are. [32:23] And saying that we must live in light of who he is.
[32:28] Okay? [32:29] And this is what it looks like. [32:31] Way back in the Garden of Eden.
[32:35] Eve is before the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. [32:38] And I don’t know what the exact situation looked like. [32:41] But at some point Satan enters in the form of a serpent. [32:44] And he tempts her to disobey God. [32:48] But what does he tempt her with? [32:49] He doesn’t tempt her with taste.
[32:51] He doesn’t tempt her with the beauty of the fruit. [32:54] He looks at her and says you will be like God.
[32:58] When God has clearly given her an ambition. [33:01] God’s ambition to Adam and Eve was glorify me. [33:05] Worship me. [33:08] Follow me.
[33:11] So God gives them this ambition about his own glory. [33:15] Because he’s God. [33:16] And who else can they bring glory to? [33:18] And Satan comes in and what does he tempt them with? [33:20] He says you should have some ambition for yourself.
[33:26] If you eat the fruit you’re going to be like him. [33:30] You’ll be like God. [33:32] So eat the fruit. [33:34] Have ambition for yourself.
[33:38] And so she eats the fruit. [33:40] And she denies God. [33:42] And she has ambition to be God. [33:46] And ever since then and it’s really sometimes glaringly obvious in our culture.
[33:53] We have struggled with this ambition. [33:56] To be God. [33:59] To steer our own ship. [34:02] To steer our lives towards what we want them to go as. [34:05] To give ourselves joy. [34:07] Because Satan was tempting Eve and saying.
[34:12] Selfish ambition is going to make you happier than godly ambition.
[34:22] And when she gives in everything falls apart.
[34:28] When God looks at our ambition.
[34:32] And we have this ambition that is less than what he is. [34:36] It is not that God is threatened by our ambition. [34:41] He is God. [34:43] Jesus is telling the disciples here what the next few days and weeks of history are going to look like. [34:51] So he has unmapped history. [34:53] You can look forward through scripture and look to the book of Revelation especially in chapter 7.
[34:57] And see that history is headed towards God whether we like it or not. [35:02] He’s going to be glorified. [35:04] He has set that in motion and he is going to bring it about. [35:08] We don’t get to make that decision. [35:11] The decision that we are faced with is what are we going to build our lives around. [35:18] When Jesus says take up your cross.
[35:20] Follow me. [35:22] If you keep your life to yourself you are going to lose it. [35:25] If you lose your life to me you are going to say that what he is doing is. [35:29] Is he saying die to the lie that you are living. [35:34] And live in light of the truth of who I am.
[35:42] He is going to the very foundation of their lives and saying all of you are living your life based on a lie.
[35:52] He is not giving us this stoic and ascetic reality where he is saying no fun, no happiness, death to self. [36:01] You just have to walk around as the world’s moral police letting no one have any pleasure. [36:06] Letting no one have any joy because God hates that. [36:11] So you got to die. [36:13] No what Jesus is saying is you are living a lie and I have so much more for you.
[36:21] You think you know what joy is. [36:24] You think you know what pleasure is. [36:26] You have no idea.
[36:32] Paul experienced this redemption to stop living the lie of selfish ambition and to begin living the life of gospel ambition. [36:41] And this is what Paul says in the book of Philippians. [36:45] He says but whatever gain I had I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. [36:51] Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. [36:58] For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him. [37:09] Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but that which comes through faith in Christ.
[37:16] The righteousness from God that depends on faith. [37:20] Paul is not giving this joyless, ascetic and stoic, pleasureless, unhappy, depressive, monastery chant here. [37:29] What Paul is saying is everything that I thought was joy before I met Jesus on the road to Damascus is pretty much a big pile of dung. [37:41] That’s a literal word there.
[37:45] He says Jesus oh the surpassing worth. [37:53] The surpassing worth in other words it goes past every type of worthiness that we have even defined.
[38:02] Oh the surpassing worth of Christ. [38:04] Oh to be found in Him. [38:05] Oh the joy of having a righteousness that comes direct from Him that I could never muster up inside of me because of my sinful and selfish and ugly ambition.
[38:26] Ambition must die to the gospel not because ambition is bad.
[38:36] But because God is so glorious.
[38:44] Understand that the most God glorifying event in the history of the world was the death of Jesus on the cross.
[38:55] It is in the most unlikely of places that we find the most glorious of ambitions.
[39:03] Have you ever stopped to look and say how wonderfully counter cultural the cross actually is?
[39:17] What would look like failure to each and every one of us dying? [39:23] A law breaker, murderer and a thieves death is the greatest success anyone has ever known.
[39:34] That leads me to think that we have no idea what ambition really is.
[39:42] The death of Jesus just shows us that we misdefine it because we define ambition as just fame and popularity and money and sex and all these things. [39:52] And the gospel stands as this testament to you have no idea what ambition actually looks like. [39:59] Because what is so ugly to us the murder of Jesus is the most God glorifying event of all history.
[40:12] When we have that true gospel we have to understand that gospel ambition brings a life of glory.
[40:22] The call to the gospel is not a call to mediocrity. [40:27] The call to the gospel is not a call to having a less than life.
[40:32] I think quite often we think that way.
[40:39] Ambition is not the problem.
[40:44] John Piper puts it this way. [40:46] He says, and I am paraphrasing here. [40:48] He says, God is better than everything that seems to drive the world. [40:53] Sex, money and power seem to be the three predominant things that drive ambition in this life. [40:59] But that, all of them, end in death and none of them offer any type of eternal comfort. [41:10] But through the gospel Jesus shows that God has power over death.
[41:19] And that the ambition that God has to offer is more glorious than anything else. [41:25] Because we lose every other type of ambition we could possibly have the minute we take our last breath. [41:34] But the gospel endures forever.
[41:45] Dave Harvey once wrote, God has designed the mission of Jesus in a way. [41:54] That the gospel goes forward only through risk, cost and sacrifice. [42:02] See, Jesus’ plea here is not, there is no cost.
[42:09] There is no risk.
[42:13] What Jesus is saying is that you must risk everything that is based on a lie. [42:19] So that you can have that great truth.
[42:25] And the gospel goes forward as we understand the greatness of God more and more. [42:31] And we begin to sacrifice more and more of the life that we have built on the lie of selfish ambition.
[42:43] Quite often the very things that we build our lives upon that look like good things. [42:50] Often are the problem. [42:53] Pastor in New York, Tim Keller once said that idolatry is nothing more than taking a good thing. [43:01] And making it an ultimate thing so that it becomes a God thing.
[43:07] If my ambition is to be a great father or a great husband.
[43:15] Most people would say that’s a great ambition.
[43:20] But what Jesus is saying there is that I must die to even that.
[43:28] Because I’m not going to be a father or a husband anymore when I die.
[43:35] And that has no power over death.
[43:39] It’s not that Jesus is telling me to forsake my family. [43:42] Don’t hear that. [43:45] Because what Jesus is actually saying is the only hope my family has.
[43:53] Is if I sacrifice it for the sake of the gospel.
[43:58] That’s a hard reality, I don’t understand.
[44:04] God must be more precious to me than my wife.
[44:10] Not because I need to make him that. [44:12] But because he is.
[44:16] I have a beautiful baby boy. [44:18] I love this kid.
[44:22] But God is more valuable.
[44:26] And if I live my life building a kingdom around him.
[44:32] I’ve done him a grave disservice. [44:36] Because I’ve taught him that he is my God.
[44:40] And I’ve worshipped him.
[44:44] For him to have hope. [44:48] I must die to self and follow Jesus.
[44:52] That’s the only hope he has.
[44:59] So where do we go?
[45:02] What do we do with this? [45:04] Jesus says in Luke chapter 11 verse 23. [45:10] He says, whoever is not with me is against me. [45:15] And whoever does not gather with me scatters.
[45:19] He’s saying, what does that have to do with anything?
[45:23] Jesus has not said take up your cross, sacrifice yourself. [45:28] And then left us with no clue as to what his glory actually looks like. [45:34] Let’s look one verse further down in Luke chapter 9.
[45:40] Looking in verse 25. [45:42] For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? [45:47] He continues that same thought. [45:49] It’s a values thing. [45:50] For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words. [45:54] Of him will the son of man be ashamed when he comes in his glory.
[45:58] In the glory of the father and of the holy angels.
[46:03] See in Luke 11.
[46:06] Jesus forecasts what he originally told the disciples. [46:11] Because when he originally looked to the disciples in Mark 10. [46:13] He looks at them and he says, follow me because I will make you fishers of men.
[46:21] And then here he cap ends this great word about sacrifice. [46:29] And he says, because the glory that you’re going to see.
[46:37] Is that the son of man will return to reveal this ultimate glory. [46:42] In the glory of the father and of the holy angels.
[46:47] See what this kind of sacrifice practically looks like in our lives.
[46:54] Is building our life around the truth that Jesus is God.
[46:58] And that he is our savior. [47:00] And that he is the gospel. [47:02] And that he is the great reward that we get.
[47:06] But when it translates into daily life. [47:09] It looks like obedience to his mission. [47:13] That we are gathering people through the truth of his gospel. [47:21] To see him in his glory when he returns.
[47:28] And it starts for us culturally. [47:31] Because this looks so different in all cultures for us. [47:34] It starts right here.
[47:41] It starts with us saying, yes.
[47:46] I believe, yes.
[47:50] He did it. [47:51] The gospel is never due. [47:52] The gospel is done.
[47:55] Complete. [47:56] But the ramifications of that will springboard us into a life where we live the mission of Jesus. [48:03] Where we live out the reality that he did. [48:07] Where he said that he came to seek and save that which was lost.
[48:11] Where we live to gather people into his kingdom. [48:16] Through his truth.
[48:18] The problem isn’t most of us have tried living for Jesus. [48:24] The problem is that most of us have sat on the sidelines and never experienced that at all. [48:30] That C.S. Lewis quote really drives home for most of us. [48:35] We are so half-hearted. [48:38] We are playing around with mud pies because we have no idea what a holiday at sea even looks like. [48:43] We have no idea, I guess for our culture, it’s like building a mud pie and then somebody offers us a Ruth’s Chris steak.
[48:49] And we say, mmm, I’ll take the mud.
[48:54] I don’t think you would.
[48:57] But in your life, how many of you are being offered, and I’ll answer this, all of you are, [49:03] being offered the opportunity to live life in light of the truth of the most high king. [49:11] And most of us are settling for sex, money, and family.
[49:22] And what Jesus is saying is, you’re going to lose all three of these.
[49:29] If you don’t believe and sacrifice them for me.
[49:39] When you leave here today, you should have known this was coming. [49:43] When you leave here today, we’re going to be passing out some invite cards.
[49:49] For a series that’s coming up. [49:51] I’m excited about this series. [49:53] I really am. [49:55] Because we’re going to go through the scripture, the story of scripture.
[50:00] And you’re going to be offered an invite card.
[50:03] And for some of you, dying to self, and building this new foundation in light of the gospel,
[50:12] is going to look like you inviting your friends and family to church for the first time. [50:17] You’re going to say, oh, that’s just so, it’s just a petty look at it. [50:20] Is it?
[50:23] Is it? [50:25] Because most of you are uncomfortable talking about the gospel.
[50:30] I know a lot of you.
[50:35] And this is a way to start.
[50:39] Just, I’ll do it.
[50:42] Just invite them. [50:45] Just invite them.
[50:49] Come and volunteer. [50:51] Sacrifice a Sunday morning.
[50:54] Sacrifice a night during the week to go to community group. [50:57] Because you can’t do this alone.
[51:00] You can’t. [51:01] I’ve tried. [51:03] I’ve tried to isolate myself and be a lone gunman for Jesus. [51:06] I failed miserably.
[51:09] My life is a great picture of failure. [51:13] When those things, where those things are concerned.
[51:17] Join the community. [51:19] Community exists because we don’t naturally want to live in light of the truth. [51:24] We want to grab a hold of the lie and hug it. [51:28] And say, ooh, joy, joy, joy.
[51:32] It’s a lie.
[51:37] But first you must believe. [51:39] Right now we’re going to enter into a time where we respond.
[51:44] The way that we respond is through partaking in the Lord’s Supper.
[51:53] See, what you do when you come forward and you take the bread and you take the cup.
[52:01] Is that you’re really proclaiming your trust in Jesus as God to each other. [52:07] Because it represents Him. [52:09] His body, His death, His shed blood. [52:12] It represents Him taking our sin and giving us His righteousness so that we could live in light of truth. [52:20] So that we could deny ourselves. [52:23] So that we can follow Him.
[52:26] And if you’re here this morning and you’re a believer. [52:29] This table, these three tables are open to you. [52:33] If you’re not a believer, we ask that you please don’t partake. [52:40] Because it means nothing to you. [52:42] It’s just a meaningless ritual unless you know Jesus.
[52:47] But if you don’t know Jesus, you can know Him this morning.
[52:53] Trust in Him for your redemption.
[52:56] I’m going to be in the back. [52:58] If you want to talk, just step out and come back there and I’ll talk to you. [53:03] Today could be the beginning of your redemptive journey, Jesus.
[53:09] Father, we come before you and we thank you so much for the grace that you’ve given us through your Son.
[53:19] God, we ask that you would give us and grant us the faith to live in light of who you are. [53:32] What you have done. [53:33] What you are doing. [53:35] And what you will do. [53:38] God, you have given us redemption.
[53:42] May we sacrifice all that stands in its path. [53:47] Not because of what we’re doing or what we can do. [53:51] But because of what you’ve done. [53:54] Glorify yourself through us today. [53:57] Amen.