Insight for Living

Guest (Male): There's a moment most of us dread when everything we've planned, everything we've built, everything we've wanted has to go. Not because we failed, but because God has a different idea. Chuck Swindoll has lived that moment more than once and he'll tell you plainly, it was the hardest thing he ever did.

Bill Meyer: Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll opens the Bible to John 18. In this passage, Jesus asks a question that stopped a crowd cold and it may just stop you cold, too. Chuck titled his message, "The Cup That He Drank."

Chuck Swindoll: On the cross, He sealed my pardon, paid the debt, and made me free. Isn't it great to be at a place where someone else pays your debts? And it's a debt you could not and would not have ever been able to pay for yourself. An eternal debt against you and me because of our sin. And that is what makes the cross so significant.

We don't worship the cross anymore than we worship the Bible. These are magnificent messages that tell us of the one to worship. The cross where the sacrifice was made on our behalf and the Bible that reveals the truth to us.

Whatever was written in earlier times, writes Paul to the Romans, was written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort from the Scriptures might have hope. Romans 15:4. God's Word gives us hope.

Bill Meyer: Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll opens the Bible to John 18. In this passage, Jesus asks a question that stopped a crowd cold and it may just stop you cold, too. Chuck titled his message, "The Cup That He Drank."

Chuck Swindoll: When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the ravine of the Kidron where there was a garden into which he himself entered and his disciples. Now Judas also, who was betraying him, knew the place, for Jesus had often met there with his disciples. Judas then, having received the Roman cohort and officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, came there with lanterns and torches and weapons.

Jesus therefore, knowing all the things that were coming upon him, went forth and said to them, "Whom do you seek?" They answered him, "Jesus the Nazarene." He said to them, "I am he." And Judas also, who was betraying him, was standing with them. When therefore he said to them, "I am he," they drew back and fell to the ground. Again therefore he asked them, "Whom do you seek?" And they said, "Jesus the Nazarene."

Jesus answered, "I told you that I am he. If therefore you seek me, let these go their way," that the word might be fulfilled which he spoke, "Of those whom thou hast given me, I lost not one." Simon Peter therefore having a sword drew it and struck the high priest's slave and cut off his right ear. The slave's name was Malchus. Jesus therefore said to Peter, "Put the sword into the sheath. The cup which the Father has given me, shall I not drink it?"

Bill Meyer: You're listening to Insight for Living. To dig deeper into today's topic on your own, be sure to purchase our *Searching the Scriptures* Bible study workbook called *How Great is Our God*. You can find it at insight.org/offer. Chuck titled today's message, "The Cup That He Drank."

Chuck Swindoll: When God wants to do an impossible task, he takes an impossible person and crushes him. You've heard me give you that quotation before. It isn't original with me. It has come from the teaching of the late Dr. Alan Redpath. When I was a first-year student at Dallas Seminary, Dr. Redpath came from Moody Memorial Church to bring a lectureship at our school.

He'd come in for just a few days for really a mini-series where he chose to speak on Christ and especially on a dimension of the cross that, frankly, I'd never heard emphasized before. I've forgotten much of what Dr. Redpath taught, but a few lines like that one I will never forget. Let me repeat it. When God wants to do an impossible task, he takes an impossible person and crushes him.

Now, at first, that sounds brutal, if not altogether cruel, until you understand that becoming like Christ is a very painful process. In fact, it takes a long time for many people to get really serious about their walk with Christ and that lengthy period of time is marked by crushing experiences. Which brings me to another line that Dr. Redpath gave.

The conversion of a soul is the miracle of a moment, but the making of a saint is the task of a lifetime. Think about that. I've come to see that nothing touches us that doesn't first pass through the hand of God, all the crushing notwithstanding. But this isn't about me. This is about what Christ is teaching us.

Now, understand the word saint is used in the broad sense, not in the sense of a figure that stands in a wall there that is made out of stone or someone who's called a saint. We're talking about a disciple of Jesus. Coming to know Christ is in a point of time a decision made for the Savior where we receive the gift of eternal life by faith because of God's grace and we come to Christ alone by faith alone. That's called conversion. It's the miracle of a moment.

However, the process of becoming disciples is a journey. As Redpath calls it, it's the task of a lifetime. Turn if you will to Luke chapter nine in your Bibles and as you do, open your outline to the opposite side. Would you? Just turn it on the reverse side. Sometime there's a chart that helps us see something a little more clearly and I hope this simple horizontal chart will do that for you.

Start at the far left and work your way to the right. On the left, you will see an example or illustrations of words used in the Scriptures regarding those who do not know Jesus Christ. We are called in Romans 2:1 people without excuse. We are, or we were, enemies, Romans 5:10 tells us. We were dead in trespasses and sins says the first verse of Ephesians two.

Furthermore, we are told he who does not have the Son does not have the life, a section out of First John chapter five. All of this describes those who do not know the Savior and we were all in that situation at one time in our existence. We were what the Scripture calls lost, unsaved, without hope, without a future with God. We were away from God.

And then you will notice by grace through faith, and that is all set forth in the New Testament, we come through the cross of Christ, Romans 5:8, where God proves his love to us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, so we come through the cross to faith in Christ. Notice that is called in today's terms conversion. That's called being born anew or born from above. Conversion. This is the miracle of a moment.

Now, notice the arrow takes you into the circle that is on your right here and it's a large circle where we enter into the family of God. We become believers in Christ. That is in a moment of time we trust in Jesus and we become believers in Christ. Notice around that circle are words describing that event or that experience, that decision. We are justified by faith, delivered from darkness.

We are protected by God's power, born of the Spirit. We are sealed in Christ. We become children of God and on and on that list could go around that major circle. Let me say to all of you who know Christ, you are in that circle. You may not feel like it some days and, truth be told, we may not act like it some days, but we are in Christ and because of that, we are in the family of God and that is a sealed and secure position to be.

You will never be out of Christ once you have been accepted into the family. Just as you will never have someone else's family blood flowing through your system having been born into your family. No matter how you act, no matter how you feel, you will always bear the nature, the blood of your family heritage. The same in Christ, we are believers.

Now, look closer. Into the circle, there is a smaller group and we put that in dotted lines because it is a process. It is a period of time we go through as we experience the beginning stages of discipleship, where we trust deeply in our Savior, where we are willing to give up our wills for his will, where we decide that the future is really in God's hands, not our own.

Selfishness is thrown out the window and in its place is a Christlikeness that becomes the driving force of our lives. Let me add here, this is when the crushing takes place. It isn't crushing to come to know Christ. It becomes a crushing experience, a painful journey as you learn and I learn to give up our wills for the Father's will. It is called, as Jesus put it, taking his cross and following him.

Now, let me give you if I may in simple terms a definition of being a believer in Christ. A Christian is a person who is rightly related to God through faith in Jesus Christ. If you have come by faith to Jesus Christ, you are a Christian. You have taken the gift of eternal life. You have become a believer in Christ. Acts 16 verse 31, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved."

First John 5:11, "God has given us eternal life and this life is in his Son." Listen to this. He who has the Son has the life. He who does not have the Son does not have the life. So we enter into this relationship with God through faith in his Son. However, it doesn't mean we become automatically a disciple. It doesn't mean that Christ is Lord over every phase of our lives or even many phases of our lives.

That's a task of a lifetime. That's a journey that we must take faithfully and painfully as we grow and mature in Christ. I rejected the statement Redpath made when I was a first-year student at Dallas Seminary. I had known very little of crushing to be frank about it. I thought that sounded very brutal and then I came across Tozer's words.

It's doubtful God can use anyone greatly until he's hurt him deeply. H-U-R-T, not H-E-A-R-D. Until he has hurt him deeply. Then I began to crush. And for whatever it's worth, you could say the same I'm sure, my crushing continues to go on. The last couple of years of my life and ministry have been some of the most crushing of my entire Christian life.

I have a friend who's close to me and he said, "I thought when you reach your age, the hard times stop and the good times enter." I said, "Well, haven't gotten there yet, but I keep hoping." I don't think they ever come, not on this earth. Why? Because being transformed into the likeness of Christ is a painful journey.

Now, what does becoming a disciple mean? It means becoming a close follower of Jesus Christ. It's a process. Listen to the process. When I denounce all lesser loyalties. I become a disciple of Christ when my love for Christ is greater than my love for my wife and for my children. I become a disciple of Christ when my goal is to please him more than to please my parents, or my parents' best wishes, or someone else who has high expectations of me.

It's the transfer of that drive. It includes the submission of my will to his will. It involves self-denial and unwillingness to pursue my own way and to go God's way to please him. Now, you have your Bible open to Luke nine. I want you to look at verse 22 down through verse 24. I know of no more clear and concise section of Scripture on discipleship in few words than Luke 9:22 through 24.

The Son of Man must suffer many things, be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, be killed and be raised up on the third day. Look closely. He was saying to them all. Remember last time we were together, I said context matters? Never, never pull verses out of context and make them walk on their own so to speak. See them in the context.

In the context, Jesus is with his own followers. He's with his men, the men he's chosen and for a period of time, many, many, many months by now, he has been walking with them along life's journey, teaching them, training them, shaping them, mentoring them. Now he's alone with them and he asks Peter the question, "Who do people say that I am?" or he asks all of them the question and Peter answers, "Well, they say this, they say that, but we believe you're the Messiah, the Son of the living God."

Verse 20, "You're the Christ of God." The word Christ is the word that could be translated anointed one, often rendered Messiah. You are Messiah of God. But he warned them, instructed them not to tell anyone. That's another subject we won't go into it. Verse 22. He went on to say, "The Son of Man must suffer many things." Do you read crushing in that? You should.

The Son of Man must be crushed, which will include being rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes. And in his case, it meant being killed and be raised up on the third day. Can you imagine those followers hearing that? Can you imagine Judas? The only reason he wanted to be a part of the band was to sort of be on that, well, special circle of people in the administration of the kingdom.

I mean, his heart wasn't right and he hears this man I've been following is going to die? I want him enthroned. I don't want him on a cross. And how disillusioned the others must have been. In fact, on one occasion, Peter says to Jesus, he rebukes him saying, "Don't say that." And Jesus' response to Peter was, "You get behind me, Satan."

You see, there was no loyalty like Christ's loyalty to the Father and the Father's will, not even his friendship with Peter. Now, stay with the subject. The Son of Man must go through all of this and the glorious news, and we celebrate it every Easter, he must be raised on the third day. Verse 23. And he was saying to them all.

So to all the people standing with him, all those men, "If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, follow me." Stop right there. When you're reading the Bible and you come across statements like this that are pregnant with meaning, there are so many things that could be drawn from. Take your time.

Pause and let your eyes graze over what you have just read. Notice it's a condition. If anyone. And I say that today, if any of you, if any of us, it's a choice. We have come into the circle. We are in the family, but if, if we wish to be in the inner circle of discipleship, those who have given up their own will for his, those who have determined not to guide their lives selfishly, but unselfishly, those who choose to be generous rather than hoarding, those who see the needs of others rather than focus on their own.

That inner circle. I find three specific requirements. Notice them. Notice them. Let him deny himself. Now, for the next few minutes as we analyze these three specifics, I want you to understand you're not going to read about these things in a Wall Street Journal. You're not going to see them in Newsweek magazine. Time will not come out next week extolling the virtues of denying yourself.

Are you kidding? It's all about us. It's all about me. No, no, no, not for the disciple. The disciple is known as a self-denying person. That means to say no to yourself. That means to refuse what you want, but accept what your Father wants. It means to disown your own rights. To dethrone self and enthrone Christ. I want to give you a moment to picture it.

Your heart is like a throne room and sitting on the throne of your heart is either your Savior Jesus Christ or yourself. And you just look back over the last few days and you'll see how far along you are in this lifetime task of becoming a disciple. Denying yourself. I'll specify that in a few minutes, illustrate. Second, take up his cross daily.

He would add that, wouldn't he? Daily. Daily. But first, the cross. Last time we were together, we learned that it's a symbol of death, so obscene it didn't even fit proper conversations around the table in a Roman home. It's a symbol of saying no to myself, putting to death my will. Spiritually speaking, the cross represents a deliberate decision to abandon one's own desires, preferences, and plans and to live with the pain that that entails.

Bill Meyer: Denying yourself, taking up your cross daily. These aren't casual suggestions from a motivational speaker. They're the words of Jesus Christ himself, calling ordinary people to an extraordinary kind of life. Chuck Swindoll is helping us understand what that life actually looks like and what it costs.

When you're ready to go deeper into today's topic, Insight for Living offers practical tools designed to help you do exactly that. For example, there's a special bundle that includes the *Searching the Scriptures* Bible study workbook and the complete collection of 12 sermons on CD or MP3. The series is called *How Great is Our God*. You can order these helpful resources right now at insight.org/offer. Have you ever thought of yourself as a steward of the mysteries of God? Probably not, but it's a title that Paul assumed in the first century. Chuck?

Chuck Swindoll: I want you to sit with a phrase for just a moment. Six words from the apostle Paul writing to that ragged, carnal, deeply confused church in Corinth. Stewards of the mysteries of God. That's what Paul called himself. That's what he called the Corinthian leaders. And if you've trusted Christ, that's part of your calling, too. To help steward the mysteries of God.

Think about what that meant in Corinth. That city was a mess. Sophisticated, worldly, impressed with itself, running every direction but the right one. And right in the middle of it, God planted a church and said, "You are the caretakers of my story." The gospel was brand new to the Gentiles. They were outsiders their whole lives, strangers to the promises, aliens to the covenant.

And suddenly the mystery was revealed. Jew and Gentile alike, whosoever will. The cross swings open for everyone and from that moment on, the stewardship passed to us. Can you imagine anything more humbling? God didn't entrust this story to governments or institutions or people who had it all together. He entrusted it to us, ordinary people.

That stewardship is not a burden. It's the greatest privilege I have ever known and it's precisely why Insight for Living exists. Every broadcast is an act of stewardship. Every Bible study, every post, every program that goes out over the airwaves and across the internet. That's us together, faithfully tending the mystery we've been entrusted to proclaim.

June 30th is almost here. As we close this fiscal year, I want to ask you, fellow steward, to invest in this sacred responsibility we share. Your gift keeps the story going for our generation, for the next one, boldly, together. It's the cross that we proclaim.

Bill Meyer: As Christians, we are caretakers of God's story. And today, we're inviting you to join Chuck Swindoll and the entire team here at Insight for Living on this sacred responsibility to proclaim the cross. Here's how to get in touch. Call us at 800-772-8888 or go online to insight.org/donate.

To express our gratitude for your partnership, we'd like to send you a brand-new booklet that Chuck's written called *The Cross We Proclaim*. In it, Chuck returns to the ancient words of the apostle Paul and asks a searching question. Have you truly come to grips with the message of the cross? Not as a doctrine to affirm, but as a transforming reality to live by.

This booklet could change everything and it's yours when you give to support the ministry of Insight for Living. The deadline, June 30th, is this coming Tuesday. To send a contribution in the mail, address your envelope to Insight for Living, Post Office Box 5000, Frisco, Texas, 75034. You can also call us at 800-772-8888 or give online at insight.org/donate. How do we close the gap between what we believe and how we live up to it? I'm Bill Meyer. Don't miss Chuck Swindoll's answer Friday on Insight for Living.