If Anyone Wants To Follow Me, Let Him Deny Himself, Take Up His Cross, And Follow Me

MARK 8:31-38
“And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He spoke this word openly. Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. But when He had turned around and looked at His disciples, He rebuked Peter, saying, “Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.” When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”
”‭‭Mark‬ ‭8:31-38‬ ‭NKJV‬
‬https://bible.com/bible/114/mrk.8.31-38.NKJ

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The name for Jesus, Son of Man, is the most common title for Him. It comes from DANIEL 7:13, where the Son of Man is a heavenly figure who, in end times has authority and power over all things. The name refers to Jesus as the Messiah, the representative of man, the human agent of God who is vindicated by God.
From this point on, Jesus spoke plainly to His disciples about His death and the resurrection, preparing them for what was going to happen. Peter wasn't fully considering God's purpose, but rather his own natural human desires; he wanted Jesus to be King, but not the suffering servant prophesied in ISAIAH 53.
He was ready to receive the glory of following the Messiah, but not the persecution.
Christian life is not a paved way to wealth. It involves hard work, patience, and perseverance. Furthermore, deprivation, suffering, and persecution are a part of the package; that is carrying your own cross.
My brethren, we must not repeat Peters mistake, but rather learn from it and focus on the good that God can bring out of apparent evil and the resurrection that follows the Crucifixion.
Peter was often the spokesman for the disciples; in singling him out, Jesus may have been addressing all of them indirectly. Unknowingly, and influenced by the devil, the disciples were trying to stop Jesus going to the cross and fulfilling His mission; that is why Jesus said, “Get behind Me Satan.”
We believers must understand, the devil will try to influence our decisions; he and his evil spirits and demons will try to infiltrate our minds, will, and emotions, particularly our emotions, that we will believe his lies that fulfil the devil’s agendas.
The devil uses sin to get in, or simply whisper lies into your ear.
The devil has many evil schemes up his sleeve (EPHESIANS 6:11), his purpose is to steal, and to kill, and to destroy (JOHN 10:10).
Therefore, we must remain diligent at all times and live right with God, testing and approving everything we hear by the Spirit and stay focused on Jesus.
“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world. You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”
‭‭I John‬ ‭4‬:‭1‬-‭6‬ ‭NKJV‬
The Romans, Mark's original audience, knew what taking up the cross meant. Death on a cross was a form of execution used by the Romans for the most dangerous and evil criminals who would have to carry their own cross to the crusifiction site.
We believers should be prepared to lose our life for the sake of the Good News; not because our life is useless, but because nothing, not even life itself can compare to what we gain in Christ.
Jesus wants us to follow Him rather than live a life of sin and self-satisfaction. He wants us to stop trying to control our own destiny, and allow Him to direct us; which makes good sense because, as the creator, Christ knows better than us His perfect plans and purposes.
He asks submission, not self-hatred, He asks us only to lose our self-centered determination to be in charge.
Jesus is the head and He wants to do His work through the whole congregation according to His plans and purposes, not the ideals of the Pastor.
The Pastor is not there to control, but rather to shepherd the flock and host the meetings.
That is the five fold ministry of God. “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.”
‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭4‬:‭11‬-‭16‬ ‭NKJV‬
It’s time for the Pastors to let go, step aside, and let God build and operate His church through the whole congregation. That is the apostolic ministry of God.
Many people spend all their energy seeking the pleasures of this world, however Jesus said, “that worldliness, which is centered on possessions, position, or power is ultimately worthless.” Whatever you have on earth is only temporary, and not worth loosing your soul for.
With hard work you might eventually get a pleasurable life, but in the end you will find it hollow, empty, and without hope; the truth is, it will come to a crashing end.
Are you willing to make the pursuit of God more important than selfish pursuits?
We believers are here in this temporary world to serve Jesus, not to fulfil our own selfish agendas, but by doing so, we can all rejoice in the very fact that the best is yet to come and nothing will be able to spoil our eternal future.
Follow Jesus, and you will come to know what it means to live now with the joy of Christ in you, with His peace upon you that surpasses all understanding that will guard your hearts and minds through Christ. Furthermore, you shall have the confident hope of eternal life with God Himself. (see REVELATION 21:3-4).
All glory to God forever and ever! Amen.