ABOUT THIS EPISODE
I couldn't escape from this passage.
Mark 8:34-38 is one of those passages that stops you in your tracks because Jesus makes it very difficult to soften, qualify or explain away what He says.
Jesus calls the crowd together with His disciples and says:
"Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me."
Who does that apply to?
Whoever. Anyone.
That includes me. And if you want to be an actual follower of Jesus, it includes you.
In this video, we work through Jesus' challenging words in Mark 8 and what they mean for Christians today:
What does it actually mean to deny yourself?
What did Jesus mean by taking up your cross?
Why is taking up your cross more than enduring life's ordinary difficulties?
What does it mean to lose your life for Jesus and the gospel?
Can we follow Jesus while making comfort, safety and security our highest priorities?
What does Jesus mean when He warns about being ashamed of Him?
What does this passage tell us about living on mission?
Denying yourself isn't simply denying yourself something. It's accepting that your life is no longer about you.
Taking up your cross means that when following and obeying Jesus becomes costly, our answer is still yes.
And losing our lives for Jesus and the gospel means our lives become oriented around Him and His mission.
Jesus isn't calling every Christian into vocational ministry. He is calling every Christian to follow Him wholeheartedly wherever He has placed them. There is no retirement from following Jesus and no category of Christian exempt from His call.
In some ways this is a hard passage.
But if you belong to Jesus, there's something in you that wants to respond:
"I will deny myself, take up my cross and follow You, no matter what."
Not because it's easy.
Because of who Jesus is, what He has done and where history is going, He's worth it.
Scripture: Mark 8:27-38
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