The Conditions for Following Jesus Christ: Self-denial (Podcast)
Good News Translation Luke 9:21-22 Then Jesus gave them strict orders not to tell this to anyone. He also told them, “The Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the Law. He will be put to death, but three days later he will be raised to life.”
From the passages above we can see that Christ wanted to commit certain secrets to His disciples but look at how He began by instructing them first not to tell anyone what He is about to share with them; He went further to explain to them forehand that He must suffer so much and be rejected by chief priests and teachers of the Law, He also revealed to them that He is going to die and raise again after three days.
Now the disciples were privileged to get this information on their account of them being close allies of Christ. There are many people whom have meet Jesus Christ before that time but He only choose to communicate this secret to His close friends. Let's go ahead and see what else was communicated,
Good News Translation Luke 9:23 And he said to them all, “If you want to come with me, you must forget yourself, take up your cross every day, and follow me.
After Christ has revealed this secrets to them, He went further to invite them to join Him on that journey he was about to take; He made it clear that in case any of them wish to come after Him; such a person must first deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow Him.
What Christ is saying in essence is that if you must do my bidding and get His approval that means you must toll the same route of suffering, rejection, and eventually die to self. So Christ set out the conditions for following Him by Himself; so at any point in time you wish to follow Christ, He has given us the template on how to go about it and that is what we are here to look at this week
Condition 1. Self- denial
This first condition Christ revealed to us is that anyone who must embark with Him in this Journey of salvation must first deny himself.
What does it mean to deny oneself?
Good News Translation Matthew 10:37 “Those who love their father or mother more than me are not fit to be my disciples; those who love their son or daughter more than me are not fit to be my disciples.
From the above scripture we see that self- denial is giving up certain pleasures and comforts of this life just to follow and do the bidding of Christ, a man who is still controlled by emotions, wealth, friends, relationship, money and pleasures of life has not yet denied himself; so self-denial begins when Christ agenda superimpose these things till you get to the point where you say like St. Paul; I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Bible KJV - Galatians - Chapter 2:20
Self-denial is that point when you stop living for your self and let Christ lifestyle dominate your dealings.
How to Deny oneself
Lose confidence in the flesh: Good News Translation Philippians 3:3-7 It is we, not they, who have received the true circumcision, for we worship God by means of his Spirit and rejoice in our life in union with Christ Jesus. We do not put any trust in external ceremonies. I could, of course, put my trust in such things. If any of you think you can trust in external ceremonies, I have even more reason to feel that way. I was circumcised when I was a week old. I am an Israelite by birth, of the tribe of Benjamin, a pure-blooded Hebrew. As far as keeping the Jewish Law is concerned, I was a Pharisee, and I was so zealous that I persecuted the church. As far as a person can be righteous by obeying the commands of the Law, I was without fault. But all those things that I might count as profit I now reckon as loss for Christ's sake.
St. Paul thought us here that self-denial is by first loosing confidence and boldness on achievement that Christ has no record with. No matter who you are and what you have, for you to be able to follow Christ, you must learn to put everything behind the place of Christ in your life, don't allow your beauty or achievements in life to be your god and take over the place of Christ but let your life be live by the Spirit and count everything as lose to the degree that Christ is not ahead of them.
Another ways to deny oneself is by looking up to Jesus:
Good News Translation Hebrews 12:1-2 God Our Father As for us, we have this large crowd of witnesses around us. So then, let us rid ourselves of everything that gets in the way, and of the sin which holds on to us so tightly, and let us run with determination the race that lies before us. Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from beginning to end. He did not give up because of the cross! On the contrary, because of the joy that was waiting for him, he thought nothing of the disgrace of dying on the cross, and he is now seated at the right side of God's throne.
In the journey of following Christ; many discouragement and distractions lies on the route, some of your friends will leave you, some will laugh and mock you just the way they did to Jesus; but self-denial demands that you overlook all those things and set your focus on Jesus. A man who has denied himself has no business listening to what people will say about His journey with Christ but run his race with patience and endurance looking upto Jesus the only one who sustains focus and has laid a perfect example through His death on the cross for us to follow.
Conclusion: following Jesus demands focus, patience endurance and grace. You cannot follow Him by the act of the flesh because the flesh is weak and cannot sustain you through that route, so you need the Holy Spirit who will light the way and lead the way. The first steps in following Christ demand that you are no longer a man controlled by Mr. Flesh, it demands that you have put to death all the workings of the old man and you now live through the dealings and instructions of the Holy Spirit.
Worship
He has promised He will never fail
I will follow
I will follow Jesus!
Our Lord has promised He will never fail us!
For His faithfulness, is forever more
His faithfulness is forever more.
My hope is built on Nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness
I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus name!
On Christ the solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand!
All other ground is sinking sand.
Prayers
Everlasting Father we enthrone you in our hearts, Lord you have open our eyes this day to see what it takes to do your will and live for you, Lord we ask you in your mercy to supply the grace in the name of Jesus! Amen. Father we beckons on you to direct our lives to the pathway of salvation. We ask that the grace to live above the desires of the flesh be supply to each and everyone of us in Jesus name! Amen. Thank you blessed Redeemer for in Jesus mighty name we pray! Amen.
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