Encounter the Truth

Jonathan Griffiths: Many won't follow Jesus Christ, but whoever would do so, he must first learn to deny himself. Say no to your desires and your wants and your agenda, and instead pick up a cross of suffering and follow Jesus on that road of rejection, of shame.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Encounter the Truth with Jonathan Griffiths. I'm Steve Hiller, glad you're with us as we continue a message called The Christ of the Cross. Jonathan, I love the fact that you are reminding us that the walk of the Christian life is not going to be an easy walk. Jesus did call us to pick up our cross and follow him, and we need to expect that sometimes that's going to be difficult, right?

Jonathan Griffiths: We do need to expect that, and I think we need to expect it in increasing measure in the coming days. You know, the winds of culture and society are blowing pretty hard against us as followers of Jesus Christ at the present time, and we should anticipate that things will become more difficult and not more easy.

But it's wonderful the way in which the Lord Jesus prepares us for seasons of challenge and difficulty and opposition. He faced extraordinary opposition and such opposition took him to the cross, and he tells us plainly that if we would follow him, we must deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow him, and it's a privilege to do that for the sake of our Savior, but we need to be ready.

Guest (Male): Well, we're going to continue to look at this topic today from the book of Matthew. We're in chapter 16 as we continue a message called The Christ of the Cross. Here is Jonathan.

Jonathan Griffiths: We are so conditioned in our affluent society to think of ourselves first and foremost as consumers. The advertising industry is so effective at surrounding us, actually bombarding us constantly with messaging that tells us that we are fundamentally consumers whose main role in the world is to decide which products and which services we will choose for ourselves from among the vast array that are available to us.

All the products, all the services, they want to be chosen. They want to be the one upon which we will place our stamp of approval. Which one will we favor with our patronage and with our resources? That's a great question. I regularly get emails, as I'm sure you do, that try and entice me to sign up for a new credit card. I mean, most days.

I normally ignore these, but I did decide the other day that I would actually have a look. I would do some of my own research. What is actually the best card to use, the best new card to sign up for? It used to be, you know, that you would just go to your local bank where you have your day-to-day account and just apply for a credit card there and that was all there was to it, but apparently that is not how it goes now.

You take an online survey that will ask you about yourself and your spending habits, your travel patterns, your income, the kinds of insurance you need, the type of reward you prefer, and then you will receive a tailored list of recommendations. And just wading through all the card features is totally bewildering.

Which reward programs do you use to collect your points? Do you have a favorite airline group or hotel brand? Do you want a shopping concierge, whatever that is? Do you want preferred tickets for special events? Do you want airport lounge access, annual reward flights or hotel room stays, car rental insurance, baggage loss cover, bonus points on groceries or gas, foreign exchange fee waivers, and on and on it goes?

And then there's the whole question of first-year bonuses and fee waivers and 5 million extra points if you make three purchases in the first month and sign all your relatives up for companion cards or something. Now, I started to wade through all this and my first thought was, you know, with all these rewards, I might be able to engineer things.

If I play my cards right, that we could move the whole family permanently to an airport lounge where we could feast on an endless buffet of tepid finger foods and I might never need to work again. But then I got totally overwhelmed and I decided just to stick with the credit card from the local bank that I signed up for years ago.

You see, we now have an overwhelming variety of choices not simply about what to buy, but through which mechanism we will buy them. And everyone is out to court our business. We think of ourselves primarily as consumers with the world at our feet, with the products and the services of the world there to bring us fulfillment and pleasure and an ever-increasing standard of living, all with a sign-up bonus to make your head spin.

And when we hear the word of Jesus Christ and when we receive the invitation of Jesus Christ, we just naturally assume that he must be there to fulfill our desires, to affirm us in our wants, to serve us in our personal goals. But into this worldly attitude, this worldly outlook of heart, Jesus speaks a very different reality, does he not? He issues a very different call, does he not?

If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Many won't follow Jesus Christ, of course, but whoever would do so, says Jesus, he must first learn to deny himself. Say no to your desires and your wants and your agenda, and instead pick up a cross of suffering and of cost, and follow Jesus on that road of suffering, of rejection, of shame.

And in those few very packed and loaded words, Jesus dismantles, no, he decimates our worldly outlook concerning ourselves. And we hear this but it sounds entirely foreign to us. We listen to it, and if we're honest, a large part of us dislikes it and recoils away from it. Isn't that true?

Carrying a cross, of course, means suffering. It means suffering that will lead to death. It means cost. It means shame. It means pain. And you and I will assume that our discipleship of Jesus Christ, our service of Jesus Christ should not cost us like it cost other generations, like it costs other believers in other parts of the world today, not us.

In the comfortable West, we will assume, we won't say it, we'll never say it, of course, but we will assume that cross-bearing is simply not for us. Is that not our assumption?

I came across a hymn by Isaac Watts the other day, one of his lesser known, I think, I hadn't noticed it in some time, but I thought he put the challenge rather well. See how it strikes you. Watts writes this: "Am I a soldier of the cross, a follower of the lamb, and shall I fear to own his cause or blush to speak his name? Must I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease, while others fought to win the prize and sailed through bloody seas? Are there no foes for me to face? Must I not stem the flood? Is this vile world a friend to grace to help me on to God? Sure I must fight if I would reign. Increase my courage, Lord. I'll bear the toil, endure the pain, supported by thy word."

I don't know about you, but I find that quite challenging. Must I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease, while others fought to win the prize? We hear that and we think, yes, I would like to be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease. I'll sign up for that. Where's the credit card? I want a quiet life. I want a peaceful death. I want a blissful eternity, and I want no cost and I want no trouble at any point along the journey. That's what we want, if we're honest about it.

But Jesus will not leave us to our dreams, and he will not abandon us to our delusions, and he insists, he will not relent. If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. As we react to his words and feel instinctively that this cost is more than we want to pay, Jesus presses forward and he shows us that the cost of following him pales in comparison to the cost of not following him.

Verse 25. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Jesus says in essence, you know, you can keep your life for now, if you wish, rather than give it up in discipleship, rather than give it up on the road to the cross, for the condemned criminal has nothing left in this world on the road to execution. Rather than give up your life in discipleship, you can choose to keep it for yourself. You can choose not to deny yourself. You can say yes to your plans for the future, your desires for yourself. You can say yes to the sinful indulgences of the flesh that you would embrace and Jesus would have you deny.

You can say yes, yes, yes to yourself and your flesh, but here's the thing. Saying yes to yourself means saying no to Jesus. You can keep your life for yourself, but here's the thing. Whoever would keep his life will lose it. See, that is actually the way of ultimate death, the way of spiritual perishing.

But by contrast, and as an utter surprise, whoever says no to himself, no to herself, whoever loses their life for Jesus' sake, that person will find their life. They will live spiritually as they trust in Jesus. They will enjoy eternal life.

Jesus presses the point further. Verse 26. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? You're hearing of this cost. It's dawning on you that it will really be a hard thing to follow Jesus. You feel it. It won't be smooth. It's not going to be easy. It's going to demand something of you, something you don't want to give.

And you're starting to, in your mind, do the mental arithmetic, you're doing the math, and you're starting to wonder, is this a good deal after all? Is this a worthwhile pursuit? Maybe I'll maybe I'll just keep my life after all. Maybe I'll have a, you know, a nice quiet career somewhere, comfortable lifestyle and existence built around my dreams and my needs. I will live my way for myself doing what I like with my time. Maybe I will do that and why not? Why not, after all?

And Jesus says in essence, okay. Okay. Imagine you go down that path. But imagine actually that you do better than you have dreamed. Imagine you gain the whole world. You don't just have a good career, you have a stunning career. You don't just make some money, you make an unimaginable fortune. You don't just enjoy some pleasure, some indulgence of the flesh, you have it all. Nothing is denied you.

You can have it all, but here's the thing, it will come at the cost of your very soul. Good bargain? Attractive deal? Spiritual death, eternal damnation, utter loss in the life to come, but you can have it all now. How does that sound? For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?

If you gain what looks like life on earth, the kind of life you dream of, the kind of life that suits you, but in the process you lose your soul, what good have you gained? If you avoid the cost of discipleship, the shame of belonging to a crucified king, the challenge of repentance, the loss of the pleasures of sin, if you gain a worldly life but forfeit life eternal, what have you gained?

See, those are sobering questions. And the answer to them, it is actually obvious. It's not it's not a vague thing. It's not a marginal answer. Gaining the whole world but losing your soul, it is a bad bargain. The pleasures of this world are fleeting. The agonies of hell are eternal.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Encounter the Truth with Jonathan Griffiths, in a message called The Christ of the Cross. We're looking at Matthew 16 today and it's part of a larger series called In the Presence of the King. If you ever miss a broadcast in the series, you can always come and listen online. Our website is encounterthetruth.org. You can stream the program, you can also download an MP3 for free. Again, that's at encounterthetruth.org.

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If you did happen to join us a bit late, we're in Matthew chapter 16, looking today at verses 21 to 28 as we continue the message, The Christ of the Cross. Here's Jonathan.

Jonathan Griffiths: The other evening, one of our kids was grappling with a math question in their homework and I, you know, I feeling quite confident that I remembered my high school math very well, thank you very much. I sort of sauntered over, you know, and offered to help. And as I looked down at the page and saw a long division question that involved the division of a number with multiple decimal points behind it, divided by another number with multiple decimal points behind it of its own. I realized that I had absolutely no idea how to do that. The calculation was just too complex for me. The kids turned to Google for help. I tried to back away quietly with some shred of dignity.

Some calculations are complex, and they take time to consider, but friends, this is not one of them. This is not one of them. The loss of your eternal soul for the gain of anything in this world, it is not worth it. It's not worth it.

And if we desire to gain our soul back, having rejected Christ, what could we give to purchase back our soul? Or what can a man give in return for his soul, asks Jesus?

The calculus is very, very simple when we stand back to consider it, when we do the analysis, but it's easy to fail to do the analysis, to be unreflective. To feel in the moment that the cost of following Jesus is too high, the social stigma too strong, the tug of the world too compelling. And I fear that too often, many who have heard the call of Christ, the call of discipleship, the call of faith, who end up drifting away because it feels too costly, who end up walking away because I think they haven't really considered what Jesus is saying here. They haven't been reflective and maybe that's you.

I I see it too often, I think, with our young people, kids from believing families even within the church. And maybe this is you, actually. Maybe this is precisely you. You've you've heard the message. You know the call, but here's what you're thinking. It's just too costly to follow Jesus. Yeah, think about it. It's it's too socially limiting. You can see it's going to hamper my career. It's you think it's going to limit my romantic prospects. It's going to make me an outlier.

And as you think about that, you think I'm just not willing to bear that cost. And so you're drifting. Or you've already drifted. You've made your choice in your heart.

There are so many with that story. There are so many like you, and I don't know what else to say to you. I really don't, except to give you the words of Jesus here. You've got to notice them. You've got to hear them. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul or what shall a man give in return for his soul? Let me ask you, what is it? What is the thing? What is it that you want to keep in this life that is worth the sacrifice of your soul?

What reputation? What experience? What relationship? What sin? What is it? Can you not see that it is a bad exchange?

It may seem that there is no cost now in turning away from Jesus, but he has a sober reminder for us of what is to come. Verse 27. For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.

You see, we easily mistake Jesus for someone who is less powerful and less glorious, less mighty than he truly is. We easily imagine that this world is right in its judgment about him, justified in the way that it dismisses him. But the humble carpenter of Nazareth, the suffering victim of the cross, here's the thing. He is the Lord of glory. He is the God of heaven above. He is the promised ruler sent to reign and coming again on a day yet unknown. We will see him for who he is.

He will come in the glory of his Father's affirmation, attended by angels for all to see.

And those who have been unashamed to name his name, those who have been willing to bear the cost, those who have repented and believed and gladly followed on the way of the cross, they will be vindicated with him.

But those who have felt the cost too high, those who have turned their back on him, they will receive repayment, repayment in the form of judgment. They will receive the just penalty for their sinful rejection of the King of glory.

And friends, it is this future glorious return of the Lord Jesus Christ that sets in proper perspective all the things that we've been talking about. It reminds us that we are right to follow him, foolish to spurn him. It means that any cost and any shame that we might bear for Christ, it is of no account really in the end. We must view the present in light of the glorious future.

Just as we finish, verse 28 can be a little bit perplexing. We can wonder what it is precisely that Jesus is saying here, but the meaning of it, I think, is more straightforward than we may think, and it certainly reinforces the point that Jesus has been making. To the skeptic and to the bewildered, Jesus says that there will be an imminent and a present foretaste and demonstration of his glory. Not centuries and centuries down the line, but very soon for the disciples, for those listening to see. Notice with me what he promises, verse 28. Truly I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.

Some of you standing here, says Jesus to those disciples, are going to see a display of my kingdom power and glory in your own lifetime. And we think to ourselves, well, what what what can he mean? The Second Coming, it still has not occurred. We're 2,000 years and more down the track. What can Jesus be referring to here? Well, we need only glance down the page at the very next incident. In the next verses, Jesus took a handful of his disciples up a high mountain, we read there, verse 1 of chapter 17, and he was transfigured before them. We read his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light.

Moses and Elijah appeared to them confirming the identity and the dignity of Jesus Christ. A cloud then overshadowed them and the Father's voice declared, this is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased, listen to him. What is it? It is a foretaste and a display of Jesus's kingdom power and his glory. It is a demonstration for doubting disciples of who he truly is.

It is a powerful reminder, isn't it? That serving him is only right and is only rational. Bearing reproach for Jesus Christ is right and worthwhile. Being on his side is indeed to be on the side of victory and ultimately on the side of glory.

Friends, it is so easy for us to be so very worldly in our thinking. And when we adopt the world's outlook and the world's values, and then we apply those values to ourselves and to Jesus Christ, we are sorely tempted to give up on our crucified King, to refuse to take up our cross and to follow him in his way. But how short-sighted we are. How short-sighted we are, how foolish and fickle. And how gracious he is. How gracious he is to show us once more who he is and to call us to be his true disciples as we await his glorious return.

May he by his spirit give us grace, each one to deny ourselves, to take up our cross, to follow him, to lose our lives for his sake, that in his grace we may keep our soul and know life that is truly life.

Guest (Male): Jonathan Griffiths here on Encounter the Truth, and a message called The Christ of the Cross. Part of our series In the Presence of the King. If you've missed any of the broadcasts in the series, come and listen online. Our website is encounterthetruth.org. That's encounterthetruth.org.

Well, Encounter the Truth is a listener-supported program. We're able to be on the station because of your generosity, and as you give a gift of any amount this month, we want to send you a book called An Anchor for the Soul, written by Paul Mallard. And Jonathan, what's this book about?

Jonathan Griffiths: Well, this is a book about walking through trial while trusting in the Lord. It's grounded in Psalm 22, where the psalmist expresses that agony of facing real trial, but it points us at the same time to the Lord Jesus Christ, who entered into suffering for us and in our place at the cross of Calvary.

Guest (Male): Well, we want to send you a copy of this book as our way of saying thank you for your financial support this month. You can give online when you visit our website encounterthetruth.org or call us at 1-833-99 Truth. That's 1-833-998-7884 or encounterthetruth.org.

You can also write to us at Encounter the Truth, PO Box 5513, Ottawa, Ontario, K2C 3M1. Or in the US, an Encounter the Truth, 215 North Arlington Heights Road, Suite 102, Arlington Heights, Illinois, 60004. For Jonathan Griffiths, and our producer Mark Brett, I'm Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening, and I hope you'll join us next time.