Sermon: "Take Up Your Cross and Follow Me". Mark 8:34

God we give you praise and we thank you for the privilege to be alive this morning god I come before your throne of grace as I bring this congregation before you you know the man in the women who are seated in this sanctuary and you know each one of them by their name oh god I pray that you'll allow the words of my mouth to be acceptable in your sight and the meditation of our heart all together to be accepted in your sight or god minister to us today speak your word to us lord I pray that beyond my word you'll be able to speak your word heal somebody comfort somebody restore somebody bring hope to someone bring your joy to somebody in the name of Jesus and as we pray to you continue to create in us a clean heart or God put a new and the right spirit within us or God restore to us the joy of your salvation and sustain in us a willing spirit in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit let the church say Amen and I man I want to minister to you on a very challenging subject take up your cross and follow me take up your cross and follow me these were the words of Jesus Christ the cross take up your cross and follow me for many times in our world today many of us always think the cross is a kind of a burden that one has to carry in their own lives perhaps it can be a strength relationship or a a physical illness oh oh or people that you don't want to see oh you don't like to put up with them and you have no choice you have no this is and you have to put up with them and many people will say it can be a job a thankless job you know some jobs are just miserable where you go and you don't feel good about it and and it can be a situation in your life you have experience and when people ask you you say oh I'm just going to carry this as my cross how many times we have heard people in our society say this is just my cross I have to carry my cross with me perhaps when Jesus was saying telling us take up your cross I don't think this is what Jesus had in mind because you realize for the brothers and sisters who lives during Jesus time in fact it was the time when the Romans were in control during the time of the Roman administration the Romans invaded the Land of Israel and Israel was under the domination of the Romans Romans were very cruel people and they used the cross as tools of torture as a as a tools of execution the cross was not a good experience it was bad we when somebody talked about the cross because Romans forces convicted criminals to carry their own cross to the place of the crucifixion bearing a cross meant carrying your own execution device while people are being ridiculous that's why Jesus walk seven miles with the cross they will have you take up your cross and walk until you reach the place of your crucifixion the cross was something that represented a torture a an instrument of torture it was an instrument of execution in our world today take up your cross will be like saying to you take up your electrical chair and sit on it can you imagine somebody asking you to take up your ill take an electrical chair because that's what it means to take up your cross in Jesus time when Jesus said to the disciples take up your cross it was not a fancy science that we well you know in our world today on top of our church we have a cross and every way you come inside the sanctuary you you see the cross everywhere but for the people in the first century during Jesus time when you look at the cross the Roman use the cross as an instrument of torture and Roman will use this as a way to punish it was a severe punishment for everyone who opposed the Roman administration so the cross during this time of Jesus during the Roman administration the cross represented opposition everyone who went to the cross is either there were criminals like today it will be somebody like a terrorist somebody who has committed very bad crimes and they need to go through a capital punishment it was like an electrical chair so the cross during the Roman administration represented opposition because everyone who went on the cross is somebody who opposed the Roman administration who he was a criminal or she was a criminal the cross represented shame the Roman knew that that they will humiliate you they will put you on the cross naked with no clothes and expose you in the public for many hours or many days and they will keep you on that cross just to make fun and humiliate you and make shame of you can you imagine we all have secret that we keep to ourselves or families and we have things that we keep to ourselves and these are part of who we are as people and many people do not know many of our secret now imagine if you are going to open up to your friend and share a secret or something that is dear to you and your friend will take that and put it on Facebook and write on Facebook about you just shame you and humiliate you then everybody on the social media knows about your secret it can be a shameful experience how will you feel ashamed the cross represented opposition it represented shame it represented suffering because this is the way they were crucifying people it was meant to kill people but a painful death they will suspend you with those big nails on that cross and imagine you a suspended a and what happened is because of gravitation your body will sag down and now you are there and then you are feeling the pain imagine you are on the cross suspend by the nails in your hand and in your feet and the power of gravitation is pulling you down is painful and you are suffering it was meant to make you suffer because you see what happened is by the time your bodies go down by the time the body sagged down you are experiencing suffocation and is so painful and then the cross not only represent opposition shame suffering and it also represented death because they were not crucifying people for you to be crucified for a while and then go your way the moment they put you on that cross they shamed you you suffer and the last things is death even in our society today we have been using the cross as a sign to say the final statement that this is the end of the story you know when you die when somebody died they put a cross on their grave and this to say this is the end of the story and you know on that grave they don't put all the accolade they don't say this was the man who had a big land he had a big farm they will not put on that cross that this was the man with a lot of money in his bank account they will not put on that cross that this was the woman who was pretty in the whole community they will not put there that you had all this type of equality in terms of your education whatever you have accomplished the only things they put there is rip in peace and then they will put your birthday born on such a day and die on such a day and they will say the sunrise and the sunset and the end of the story they put the cross the cross symbolizes death and many of us sometimes are afraid even to drive by the symmetry during the night can I get a witness when you see many crosses around and you're driving you are afraid afraid why because the cross was a symbol of shame and suffering and death Jesus is talking to the disciples and saying to them take up your cross if you want to become my disciple Wow what do you mean the cross among the instructions that Jesus gave us how does the discipleship looks like how does our discipleship looks like Jesus is saying to us if you want to be my disciples whoever wants to be my disciple Jesus is saying you have to deny yourself first proposition denying yourself you have to die to yourself and then is giving us the second proposition you have to take up your cross and the cross in the context of Jesus Christ was death shame suffering and you may be saying to me oh I did not sign up for that no no no is it that Jesus was supposed to take up the cross and I did not have to carry that cross why should I pick the cross while Jesus had already taken up the cross whether you are a Christian man or a Christian woman whether you I believe I oh you are not a believer we all have experienced these things in our world we have experienced opposition we have experienced the same we have experienced suffering and we have experienced death in our own life and if you keep on living you are going to experience these things maybe you know somebody who is living with the power of opposition people are just opposing you it can be in your own family whatever idea you put there people are making fun of you you know it is a good idea you know especially in our families you know we have our relatives every time you will tell them do something like this they will refuse until they do the very bad things and things don't work well and then they will come and say oh you were right oh I wish I had listened to you yes you wish but it's too late you know I'm tired of my fellow relatives to tell me oh I wish I'd listened to you now we are going to pay the price and face the consequences together because you did not listen we all experienced opposition in our own life maybe you know somebody who's experiencing shame there are people who'll make fun and shame shame you because of your religion there are people especially in our world today our society is just anti religious they can say anything they want just say the name of God or name of Jesus they don't want to hear about the name of Jesus they will accuse you of all these kind of things they will make you feel horrible that you are the most horrible person just because you talk about you love God and you love your Bible they will make fun of you for your religion maybe you know somebody who's suffering in your family in the world in the society like rust say you know it's easy for us in America you have to be Christian to come to church on Sunday morning and to carry the Bible there are places in our society in our world today where they will kill you when you carry your Bible they will kill you when you say you're a Christian there are people who are suffering because of their faith today we all know people who are suffering people who are experiencing suffering in all kind we all have experienced death in our own family and sometimes we are afraid to talk about death what will happen to me when my husband dies what will happen to me when my wife died what will happen to me when my children die we are all afraid of the idea of dying death is something that we don't even want to talk about it the good news this morning is that we follow a Savior we follow God the one who just did not ask us to take up our cross but he is all he also has experienced the cross Jesus went to the cross he died because of opposition Jesus died on the cross because of opposition the Jewish people did not like Jesus did he look like what Jesus said they accuse him of blasphemy they accuse him of sedition and they brought him before Pilate and say we don't like this guy this guy is a blasphemer he needs to be killed crucified Him Pilate say I don't see any Fault in him but then Pilate did not provide leadership a very bad example of a leader he brought Barnabas Barabbas and Jesus and put them before the people and say whom do you want me to crucify and everybody say Jesus Jesus and Jesus was crucified went to the cross because of opposition Jesus experienced shame on that cross Jesus experienced suffering on that cross he suffer that's why I cried my God my God why have you forsaken me he was on that cross in pain and they put a crown of thorns around Jesus head he was bleeding it and he cry and say I'm thirsty I touched I need something to drink and here's somebody bringing vinegar to Jesus Christ put verga the sponge of vinegar around his face to make him so painful and the experience that he went through all these because of you and I you know when that time came when Jesus felt like he was about to die he did not kiss God he did not say God why have you abandoned me yet is surrender to God is say into the hand I commend my spirit and he died and Jesus died like anybody else we too have experienced death that was the end of the story but something happened with our Lord Jesus Christ when Jesus died on the cross Jesus was taking a symbol of death a symbol of shame a symbol of suffering a symbol of Terror and Jesus was changing it into becoming a symbol of forgiveness a symbol of grace a symbol of love a symbol of freedom and a symbol of redemption Jesus died in on the cross changed the perspective of the Cross because when Jesus died on the cross it was not the end of the story Jesus is saying to us the cross is not the end of the story because Jesus changed the opposition on the cross into reconciliation with God Jesus is changing the shame on the cross into honor because right now Jesus is sitting at the hands right of God in heaven and Jesus is God and every knee shall bow down and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God Jesus is changing suffering into peace and above all Jesus is changing death into life the true Jesus Christ we can experience life he said I have come so that you may have life and life in abundance the cross the opposition the shame and the suffering and death is not the final is not the final statement the cross is not the final statement Jesus changed that this is not the end of the story my brothers and my sister Jesus is inviting us to take up the cross Jesus is not inviting us to take the cross of opposition to take up the cross of shame the cross of suffering and the cross of death Jesus is inviting us you know I used to think about the cross as opposition shame suffering and death now I understood why we need to celebrate the cross because the cross represents reconciliation with God the cross represents honor the cross represent peace and life the cross represent life Jesus is inviting us this invitation of taking up your cross Jesus is inviting you to take up the cross of reconciliation to take up everything Jesus has done for you the cross take up the cross meaning take everything that God has done for you what does the cross has brought us the cross brought us reconciliation with God the cross brought us the love of God the mercy of God the freedom of God the redemption of God the owner of God take up your cross and follow me Jesus is saying take up everything that I've done for you take up the good news that's the good news that's the gospel it with you carry across my sister carry across my brother because there is hope in the cross there is love there is forgiveness they're really Speas and there is life take up your cross we live in a hurting world our families our neighbors the society in which we live the world is hurt they need good news and you iberá of that good news God has given us this broken vessel of us we carry the mystery of the cross carry across to the grocery store carry your cross to the place of your work carry your cross in your marriage in your family take up your cross and follow Jesus Christ take everything that the Cross has done for you Jesus is inviting you to take up the cross to take up what God has done what Jesus has done for us take your cross and follow Jesus Christ and

Channel: Fords Chapel UMC

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Length: 21min 19sec (1279 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 21 2018