What Are You Prepared To Do?- Part#2

Hey, this is Mike Zwick from If Not For God Podcast, our show.

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This is part two of a special two-part episode. Do you feel like you're on a religious treadmill? Do you feel like Christianity is just a system of rules and regulations?

I can do this, but I can't do that. Do you feel like your efforts to reach God, find God, and please God are futile? Do you feel like your faith is dead or alive? Today, Pastor Russ Andrews will walk us through Scripture to answer these questions. Join us on Finding Purpose, glorifying God by helping men find their purpose for living.

For more information and to connect with Russ Andrews and Finding Purpose, you can visit us online at findingpurpose.net or connect with us on Facebook. Now let's listen to Russ Andrews as he teaches us how to be a Christian without being religious. His plan, you know what I think happened?

It didn't go exactly like this. I think he looked at his son, the second person of the Trinity in eternity past, and he said, Son, what are you prepared to do? And you know what the son said?

Father, not my will, but thy will be done. The same conversation he had in Gethsemane when the father probably once again said, Son, what are you prepared to do? Jesus was sweating blood droplets because of the stress on him.

He had never been separated from his father. He didn't have a speck of sin on him. And he actually knew beforehand what kind of suffering he was getting ready to endure and humiliation. Do you know why he did that? Because when he was on the cross he was thinking about you and he was thinking about me.

He was thinking about Stefan, thinking about Tim up there, everybody in here. By the way, this is what the word redeem means. It refers to the price paid to set a captive free, and that's exactly what Jesus did. When he shed his blood on Calvary, he paid down the ransom. He paid the price of redemption for you and me and set us free. And then I believe that Jesus picked out the leader of the twelve who was Peter. Was he a perfect leader? No, but he was a leader. And he asked him the most important question men that every single person must answer, and that is this. What about you? Who do you say Jesus is?

You better get the answer to that question squared away before you die. By the way, this is what believer's baptism is all about. And what it is is, you see, Peter, what he did right there in the presence of whoever was there, the twelve at least, he made a public confession before men.

Have you done that? See, that's what believer's baptism is all about. That's why believer's baptism, if you go to the New Testament, it always happens after conversion. That's why there's no such thing in the New Testament of infant baptism. I mean, I got baptized as an infant because I grew up in the Methodist Church.

I got knees for it. I wasn't saved in that moment. I didn't know what I was doing. I don't even remember it.

I guess I was one year old. So it's really just a dedication service if I ever do one. But it's not, that's not baptism. Baptism happens after you're converted. And it's a chance for, to stand up in a place like behind that screen and stand right, we had four or five here baptized this past Sunday right there behind that screen who stood up here before our church shared publicly that they have placed their trust in Jesus Christ. And it's an announcement to the world that I have decided what?

To follow Jesus. What? No turning back.

No turning back. And Peter answered, You are the Christ of God. Now let me ask you something. Do you think when he said, You are the Christ of God, he really understood what he was saying?

Not really. But he had a mustard seed of faith just like the thief on the cross. And that's all Jesus needs to see. And he knew that what he didn't understand, he would learn and his faith would grow. And that's what happens when you decide to follow Jesus and you begin to study God's Word. Your faith is born and you just begin to blossom and grow. Jesus then turned to the twelve and what he did in the next two verses is he basically shared with them what the true gospel is. Look at verses 21 and 22. Y'all see, isn't this stuff great?

I have more time getting to do what I get to do. I spent the last two days in my office just studying this text. Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone. Why? And then he said, The Son of Man, here's the gospel, must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed. And the third day he be raised to life. I got news for you. This was news to them, really.

I want you to notice this first. Three things out of these two verses. The reason he warned them not to tell anyone at this point was this. It wasn't time. His time had not yet come. He was on a divine time schedule. That's why when you look through the gospel of John, he would say things like, My time has not yet come to his brothers for you anytime.

You can go to Jerusalem anytime, but it's not the right time for me. And then he said, The hour is not here. And then when he finally gets to the Last Supper, he said, The hour is here. He was on a divine time frame, guys, and he wasn't going to get ahead of God, his Father. Is there a lesson there for you and me? Yes. When you walk with the Lord, you're in His hands and you want to walk with Him day by day, step by step.

Don't fall behind and don't get ahead. Second, Jesus referred to himself with his favorite title. What was his favorite title, Jeff? The Son of Man.

Why did he use that title? Well, first of all, he was drawing it back to Daniel chapter 7, where the first reference of the Son of Man in the Old Testament. And because he wanted us to realize that the reason his favorite title is the Son of Man is it pictures what he had to do. He had to come to this earth literally. He had to humble himself, leave the glories of heaven, and become in the form of a man. He was born of a woman. And then he had to live a perfect life.

Why? In order to qualify as the perfect Lamb. Remember, without defect. And as the perfect Lamb, he would then be an acceptable sacrifice to a just God, his heavenly Father. And then then, he could bear our condemnation, our guilt, our shame, our sin. And in that moment on the cross, he received God's just punishment that was due to you and me. Third, before he endured the cross, the Messiah had to, according to Scripture, be truly humiliated.

That involved public shame, which included nakedness, mocking, ridicule, spitting, and brutality at the hands of a group of soldiers that were a lot like Putin. And they did everything but kill them when they flogged them. That's why the crucifixion only took six hours.

Most men it took two to three days. And all of this was prophesied in the Old Testament. You know what the ironic thing is? The elders, the teachers of law, and the Pharisees, they pretty much had the Old Testament memorized. Memorized it.

Knew it backwards and forwards. But see, they were blind gods. They were blinded by their own man-made religion, just like many are today.

All these religious men had to do was to understand Isaiah chapter 53, where the prophet Isaiah, who lived 700 years before the birth of Christ, is looking into the future and he's describing what the coming Messiah would do and what he would be like. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him. And by His wounds we are healed. We all like sheep have gone astray.

Each of us has turned to His own way. And the Lord has laid on Him, God the Father has laid on Him, the Son, the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. Remember when He stood before Herod, who'd cut off the head of John the Baptist, He didn't say a word to him. There's a point, men, when God stops speaking to you. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter.

And as the sheep before her shearers are silent, so He did not open His mouth. Yet it was the Lord's will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer. And though the Lord makes His life a guilt offering, He will see His offspring and prolong His days.

That's a reference to what? The resurrection. Because He poured His life unto death and was numbered with the transgressors. Verse 12 says, For He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.

That's you and me. He intercedes for... He's the mediator. He goes between us and God so that we can be restored to the relationship that God intended for each one of us to have. Let me tell you what happens here in Luke chapter 9. In Luke chapters 1 through 4, the inauguration of Jesus' ministry begins with basically John the Baptist announcing that He's the Lamb of God. And then from chapter 4 through chapter 9, we see Jesus when He goes to Nazareth, you know, and He's rejected by His hometown, and then He begins His Galilean ministry, which we've been reading about.

Well, now, guys, the hour is approaching. And so what He does here in chapter 9, He turns His face towards the cross. And at the same time, He begins to break the news slowly to His disciples that pain, suffering, and death all await them. And now He puts this question before them.

What are you prepared to do? Many turned away. Go to John chapter 6.

The teaching got too difficult for them to accept it. And Jesus looked at the disciples and says in John 6, Are you going to leave me too? Remember what Peter said? No.

Where else can we go? You're the one who possesses eternal life. Look at verse 23. He's getting ready to show them the cost of following Him. Then He said to them all, If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. So here's what we need to understand, men. Unlike what Joel Osteen is telling you, which is a bunch of you know what, following Jesus is costly.

It's far from a stroll through a park on a Sunday afternoon. When you make a blood oath with Jesus, which basically He's making a blood oath with you, you're all in. What you're doing in that moment is you're coming after Him. By the way, when it says come after Me, what He means literally in the Greek is to attach yourself to Me and be My disciple. That's what the disciples had done when they dropped their nets. They attached themselves to Jesus and said, We're all in.

So men, let me just tell you this. Following Jesus involves total commitment. You can't be half-hearted. Either you're all in or you're really not in. This is stage two, and it includes three aspects, deny, take up, and follow.

Let me explain this to you briefly. First, you must deny yourself. That is, must you be willing to turn away from your old way of life.

Have you really done that? Can people see a change in you or are you the same old person you've always been? See, many of the things we all have selflessly engaged in, like partying, getting drunk, hanging with the wrong crowd, trying to climb the ladder of success in order to make more and more money and to win the applause of men.

See, if our motivation is wrong, then all these things you must deny yourself because the world has always enticed you to get more. By the way, you can no longer expect to be in the cool crowd. As much as some of you fraternity guys, including me, you kind of want to, you know, you kind of want to be liked by your buddies, right? Well, you've got to choose Jesus of sometimes friendship with your buddies. Remember in John 15, 18 through 21, Jesus says, The world will hate you because of My name.

So what are you prepared to do? Somebody once said, and lots I think, that if you're not being persecuted, I wonder what kind of witness you really are. That's convicting. Here's second, you must take up your cross.

Let me just give you William Hendrickson's wonderful commentary on this. He says, The underlying figure is that of a condemned man who is forced to take up and carry his own cross to the place of execution. However, what the convict does under duress, the disciple of Jesus does willingly. He voluntarily and decisively accepts the pain, shame, and persecution that is going to be his particular note. He has not someone else's lot because of his loyalty to Christ and his cause.

Luke even retained Jesus' insistence on making the taking up of one's cross a daily assignment. See in America, it's so easy just to be a Christian and you know, not much of a sacrifice is it? Not much persecution. Try doing that if you're Jewish in Israel and you convert to Christianity. Or try doing that in a Muslim country. In Jerusalem, I don't think they'll kill you. In Muslim country, they'll kill you. A father will kill a son.

I've read about it. He kills a son who turns to Jesus because what he sees that son doing is you're denying my name and you're deserting your family. Therefore, we desert you and they will put a price on your head.

What would happen if that happened in America? And you know, if you show up to church, you're going to be arrested. How many people show up to church?

See in China, they'll walk days and nights to get to an underground church to meet for five hours. Guys, I'm convicted by this, okay? I'm not preaching at you.

I'm preaching at me, okay? So what are you prepared to do? What am I prepared to do?

I've had about the easiest life you can have. Third, you must follow Jesus all the way to the end of your life. This means to trust and obey no matter the cost. One of my heroes is Jim Ellington. You know, he was at Wheaton College back in the late 1940s and he kept a journal which I'm just amazed at his spiritual maturity.

When he was a junior in college, he wrote this on January 17, 1948. Jim Ellington wrote in his journal, God, I pray Thee, light these idle sticks of my life. In other words, take a match and light the weakness burning in me. And may I burn for Thee. Consume my life, my God, for it's Yours. I seek not a long life but a full one like You, Lord Jesus.

And guess what? He died in his 20s in 1956 when he and four other men who all had the same calling went to Ecuador to share the gospel with the Alca Indians and they were all speared to death. Elizabeth Ellington, her book, Shadow of the Almighty says, and guys, if you haven't read this book, get it and read it. Shadow of the Almighty.

You can buy it on my website. When he died, here's what she's writing about her husband. When he died, he left little of value as the world regards values. Of material things, there were a few, a home in the jungle, a few well-worn clothes, books, and tools. The men who went to retrieve the bodies of the five missionaries brought back to me from Jim's body, his wristwatch, and from the beach where they found them, the blurred pages of his college prayer notebook. There was no funeral, no tombstone for memorial, no legacy then she asked. Was it just as if he'd never been? Then she says, Jim left for me in memory and for us all in these letters and diaries, the testimony of a man who sought nothing but the will of God, who prayed that his life would be an exhibit of the value of knowing God. The interest which accrues from this legacy is yet to be realized. It is hinted at in the lives of Indians, the Alcas, who have determined to follow Christ, persuaded by Jim's example in the lives of many who write to tell me of a new desire to know God as Jim did.

His death was the result of simple obedience to his captain. I mean, phew, puts me to shame. I just went on a little mission trip to Latvia and came home early because I wasn't tough enough. You know what we see in America today? It's a watered down version of biblical Christianity. In fact, it's not really Christianity at all. When you really look at what real Christianity is, you look at our country and go, this is a joke. J.C. Ryle was an evangelical Anglican bishop in Liverpool, England. He lived from 1816 to 1900. That was over 120 years ago and I want you to listen to how he describes Christianity in his day.

This is back in the late 1800s in England. There's a common worldly kind of Christianity in this day which many have and think have enough, a cheap Christianity which offends nobody and requires no sacrifice and which costs nothing and is worth nothing. When's the last time you went to church and got offended? That's not why you go to church to be offended. I'm not going to church to be offended. But I got news for the gospel is offensive. I mean, when you read the Bible, it convicts us to the core. Why? Because we look at our lives and look at how selfish we are. Paul Tripp says, the spiritual DNA of man is selfishness.

Anybody disagree with that? Do you know what percentage of people attend church these days in England? About 5%.

5%. This is where Charles Wesley and John Wesley and George Whitefield and so many others were preaching the gospel and it was flourishing all throughout Europe and England. What happened?

I'll tell you what happened. Progressive liberal theology swept through the church in the 18th century. Excuse me, the 19th century during the age of reason.

Maybe my century is mixed up but I think it's right, the 1800s. When reason replaced faith as the basis for Christianity. Reason?

Faith which rests on reason. So let me ask you something. Do you know what's going to happen to America? Well, it's already happening. Our attendance is dropping like a rock. We're just a few years behind Europe and England unless men... Do you know what God did with 12 men?

He turned their word upside down. Think of what He could do with this group right here, right here in Raleigh. What we need is a revival, guys. You see, listen, following Jesus is costly but it's one of my heroes, the late Darlene Rose who said, the compensation is far outweigh the cost.

So what are the compensations? By the way, that's stage three. I'm almost done. Look at verse 24 and 25. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world and yet love, lose, excuse me, or forfeit his very self, his soul? So here's the deal. Listen to this carefully, guys. If you want to destroy your life and your soul, reject Jesus and live for your life to please yourself. As the old Budweiser commercial said, nobody remembers anymore. You want to go around once in your life, so what?

Grab all the gusto you can. Really? Here's the problem with this way of thinking. It actually leads to the destruction of your soul and death. What I mean, we were designed for worship. However, we were designed to worship God and God alone.

When we begin to worship any and everything but God, just read Romans chapter 1. When we worship success, and guys there's nothing wrong with success, but when we worship it, we worship success and pleasure and sex and money and fame, you know what we're actually doing? We're actually destroying ourselves. We're destroying our souls. We're not being who God created us to be.

Worship of Him. You see, worshipping ourselves is draining, just try it. It drains us of life. All the partying, all the success, all the money and fame is never so satisfying. Do you know why?

Because it was never meant to be. Living your life consumed with self is dying a death by a thousand cuts. And every time you live for self, instead of God, what you're doing is you're taking a little knife and you're cutting your soul over and over and over again.

On the other hand, guys, here's the good news. Living for Christ by worshiping Him in all that you do actually feeds your soul. Remember Jesus said, my food is to do the work of Him with me.

Food feeds you. Every time you die to self and live for Christ, your soul is satisfied and strengthened and gradually over the course of time, by trusting and obeying God's Word, man, I'm telling you, I've tried it both ways. You become like that stationary lighthouse out in the rough ocean that can withstand the battering of the wind and waves. You become like a wise man who built his house on the rock. When the rain comes and the strength of the streams rise and the wind blows and beat upon you, you're still standing. You become like a tree planted by a stream of living water. Psalm 1 says, blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers.

In other words, watch out who you're hanging out with. But it's the light. It's the law of the Lord. And on His law, He meditates day and night.

He is like a tree planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in season and His leaf does not wither. And whatever He does, prospers. That's the prosperity gospel, by the way. You want your soul to prosper?

That's all that matters. You see, the man who truly follows Jesus in this life is becoming like Christ Himself. And one day, I mean, we were not going to be with Christ, but we're going to share in the coming glory of Christ.

And that's the fourth stage. We men were designed for glory because we're designed to be like God. Not God, but like Him in thought, word, and deed so that we have the light of life living in us like a lily being by a stream. Look at verse 25. If anyone is ashamed of Me in My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of Him when He comes in His glory, in the glory of the Father and of the Holy Angel. So men, don't be ashamed of the One who paid the price for you. Don't be ashamed to publicly confess Christ, Jesus, to your family and your friends. If you are ashamed, then you have not truly died yourself, and you can't be one of His followers.

Here's a little bit of a warning. William Hendricks says something very interesting and perhaps very telling about us. Together the three, that is deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Me. Together the three indicate true conversion, followed by lifelong sanctification. So here's the question.

Have you truly been converted? Let me ask you something, guys. I'm going to close with this. There's a bright day ahead. This world right now is so dark I can't believe it. But the reason why I have great hope is because I have the light of Jesus shining in me. And Jesus is my anchor that I'm clinging to, guys, every day.

And life is going to probably get a lot more difficult in this world. Do you want to share in the coming glory of Christ? What are you prepared to do? The Apostle Paul says in closing, in Philippians 3, I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, and so somehow to attain the resurrection from the dead. Do you want to become like Jesus? Are you willing to share in His suffering? If you want to share in His sufferings, you will share in His glory. And this earth is passing away very fast. In fact, Billy Graham once was asked, what's the most amazing thing you've learned about life?

He said the brevity. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank You for these men. Thank You that they'll sit there and listen to me as I sometimes give a very, I know, hard to hear a message.

But it's the truth, Lord, and You say the truth will set us free. And I want all of us in this room, Lord, to experience joy and peace, to be the men that You create us to be, so that we can walk around with our head held high, not from pride, but because we know You, and we can be about Your business sharing the truth with others. So, Lord, I ask You to bless them for being here.

And, Lord, watch over us and watch over the people of Ukraine. So in Your name that I pray, amen. Being a Christian is not about being religious, but about having a dynamic, alive relationship with Jesus Christ. You've been listening to Finding Purpose with Pastor Russ Andrews, glorifying God by helping men find their purpose for living. You can discover more about finding your purpose in life by checking out the resources at findingpurpose.net or connect to Finding Purpose on Facebook. Pastor Russ would also like to extend a special invitation for you to join him and over 300 other local men to study God's Word together every Tuesday night at 7 p.m. in downtown Raleigh. Find out more at findingpurpose.net. This is the Truth Network.