Take Up Your Cross and Follow Me!

I am currently reading a book by John Piper called What Jesus Demands From the World. This book has short chapters covering a variety of commands of Christianity from the Lord Jesus Christ from taking up your cross and following Him to making disciples and everything in between. I wanted to share briefly about one of the chapters I read that really struck me...The title: "DEMAND 8: Take Up Your Cross and Follow ME!"

"If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." -Matthew 16:24-25

"Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men." -Mark 1:17

"I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." -John 8:12

"If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." -Matthew 19:21

The Christian life in today's society can often times be portrayed as being "cool", "easy", "glamorous", or the answer to all of your problems. Problem is this isn't what the Bible teaches. There is not a promise that once you repent and put your trust in Christ that somehow your life is going to be daisies and roses...it in fact promises the exact opposite. Once you become a Christian and are transformed from the inside out you are now going to be going upstream in a world thats flowing rapidly in the opposite direction. When Jesus was here on earth He had actual followers, His disciples who went with Him wherever He went. When Jesus approached them and commanded them to follow Him they didn't ask any questions and were not hesitant...they immediately dropped what they were doing, left everything and followed Him. What an example to us. Although Jesus is not physically here commanding us to follow Him in a physical sense the command still holds true to those of us who are going to claim to be Christians.

What does following Jesus entail? Piper explains that following Jesus first and foremost means that you are "joining Him in what He was sent to do". What is that? He came to give life...everlasting life. That means that if we are going to follow Him we are continuing the work He came to do. We are gathering those left to follow Him too and bring glory and honor to His name...SPREAD THE GOSPEL! With this there is going to be suffering. Jesus teaches that if He suffered how much more and we who follow Him going to suffer as well. We are blessed to live in a day and age where our suffering is minimal compared to those in the past but are we willing to loose our reputation, our friends, our families, and even our lives to follow Christ? We might say we are but are we living lives that reflect that?

You see following Christ is going to create problems with everything in this world. It is going to create problems in your relationships with people. It is going to create problems in your relationships with possessions. It is going to create problems in your relationships with vocation and so forth...but then comes the question is it worth it? Is following Christ worth the cost? There is a cost.

"Jesus has no desire to trick you into following Him with a kind of bait and switch. He is utterly up front about the cost. In fact he urges you to count the cost...Let the call to follow Jesus be clear and honest. "in the world you will have tribulation, but take heart I have overcome the world!" (John 16:33)" " (74). Is it costly? Absolutely, but is it worth it? OH YES INDEED!