“Dying to Self – Part 1” – Luke 9:23-25; 14:26-27

We use the term “dying” in many different contexts in our world. Entertainers use the term to state they are not being well received by the audience. We use it to define our state of hunger. We use it to say how much we want to do something. And of course, we use it to express that a person’s life is ebbing away.

In today’s passage, Jesus does not use the term to die, but He clearly spoke to His audience about an action that was clear to them it would lead to death.

Over the next two messages, we will consider how immersing ourselves in Christ must lead to the death of self in order for Christ to live in us.

Background

When we considered each of the Gospels leading up to Christmas, you may recall we compared Luke to the creation of a documentary film. His purpose for writing his account of the gospel was to state the facts for his audience, “Most excellent Theophilus,” in a straight and accurate way.

Luke presented two occasions where Jesus taught about picking up our cross and following Him. In Chapter 9, the writer placed Jesus’ teaching immediately after Peter’s confession of Christ and Jesus’ warning that He would be betrayed and killed only to rise again. In Chapter 14, Jesus made the statement of taking up our cross after He told a parable of a great banquet.

In both instances, Jesus challenged His listeners to consider carefully the cost of immersing ourselves in Him. Because the challenge comes from Jesus, we know that it is first of all a challenge we can achieve and second of all that the reward in fulfilling the challenge is well worth the sacrifice.

Central Truth: The idea of dying to self is necessary to become immersed in Christ.

Dying to self means we:

1. deny ourselves (9:23)

Then He said to them all: “If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.”

If we had lived at the time Jesus was teaching this lesson, we would understand that a person carrying a cross was a person walking to his death. At the time of the statement, the only thing the cross represented was the means of a cruel, inhumane execution. Jesus’ use of this graphic word picture must have left a vivid impression on His listeners.

There are those who believe Jesus was speaking of a literal martyrdom. To be sure, almost all of Jesus’ disciples did die a martyr’s death, except for John who suffered harsh persecution before dying of old age. The rest of the original apostles died at the hands of men who were adamantly opposed to Jesus’ message of hope, salvation and life.

Even though many of Jesus’ followers did find a martyr’s end, Jesus was speaking figuratively in this verse. Instead, Jesus calls us to surrender ourselves to Him. We are called to die to self. Jesus’ words let us know there is no other way to follow Jesus but through the denial of self. Notice His words.

“If anyone would come after Me.” Jesus conditions discipleship with what follows. He doesn’t say, “Many who would come after Me” or “One of the ways a person can come after Me.” No, it is an exclusive requirement of discipleship. If we would follow Jesus, we must take up our cross and follow Him.

One of the things that lets us know that Jesus is speaking figuratively of death to self is that we are called to pick up our crosses daily. We know that salvation is a once-in-a-lifetime event. Once God saves us through Christ, we are saved for eternity.

But, as we’ve learned over the past few years, a large portion of the Christian walk, of discipleship, is our conscious decision to follow Jesus. It is what Paul meant when he wrote we are to offer ourselves to God as living sacrifices (cf. Romans 12:1-2). When Paul wrote to the Philippians about putting off the old self, he stated that the decision is an on-going one. Repeatedly, in Philippians 3:7-11, he wrote the word “consider.” He meant that each day, each moment of each day, he continued to consider his past accomplishments to be rubbish and loss.

If you and I will immerse ourselves in Christ, we must willingly and consciously die to self in order to allow Christ to live in and through us.

2. trust Jesus for our lives (9:24-25)

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 lose or forfeit his very self?

Ask most Americans to define success, and most will mention money, position and/or power. We as a society spend more time working than other Western cultures. We take fewer vacations and work longer weeks, all for the sake of holding on to our jobs and hopefully getting ahead.

Jesus’ words are that the choices we make each day will determine our success. In Jesus’ eyes, success is found not in achieving riches, power or position, but in following Him. To have a genuine, fulfilling life, we must turn our lives over to Jesus, to trust Him in leading us to do His will. He made this point in two views of the same thing.

We often think we have to be control. Many of us feel uncomfortable in the passenger’s seat. Jesus said that the person who is determined to keep control and so safe his or her life will only end up losing that which we so desperately grasp onto.

Putting it another way, Jesus said that gaining the world while losing ourselves in our pursuit of life is pointless. What good is it, He asked. Perhaps you’ve heard it said that no one on their deathbed ever said, “I only regret that I didn’t spend more time at the office.” When the final sentence is said, when the last breath is about to be taken, we all realize that life is so much more than pursuing our dreams, our money, our position. Jesus taught us and teaches us today that a real life, a meaningful life, is one that is spent in fellowship with Him.

If we are to immerse ourselves in Jesus, we must trust Him for our lives.

3. place Jesus first (14:26-27)

“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be My disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple.”

While the previous passage dealt with Jesus and His closest disciples, this passage shows Jesus was speaking to a large crowd that was following Him. We know from other passages that sometimes the crowds would get so large that it was almost impossible to walk. At one point, Jesus had to take a boat offshore in order to be able to address the crowd that pressed in on Him.

The crowds that followed Jesus were seeking a variety of things. Many came for healing. Some came in hopes of seeing a miracle, perhaps to be fed a full meal for free. Some came to learn and some must have come just to see what all the fuss was about.

It is to this large crowd that Jesus said that the cost of discipleship is to take up one’s cross and follow Him.

Jesus prefaced that declaration with another startling statement. He said we are to hate those who are closest to us. Did Jesus really mean that a true disciple will hate his or her parents, their families and friends? Perhaps looking at Matthew’s version of these words will give a better understanding. In Matthew 10:37, Jesus said, “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.” Clearly, what Jesus means in these two verses is that our devotion to Him must be such that there is no one or anything that we would want to devote ourselves to as much.

To be sure, there are many things in life we hold dear. Who doesn’t love their parents, their children, their siblings? Who doesn’t love their church? Ask one who follows Jesus if they love the Bible, and the answer will be, “Of course.” Jesus’ point is that we should love all these things, but not to the point that they become the focal point of our lives. If anyone or anything comes before Him, then we are not His disciples.

The reality is that parents will pass away; we’ll see our children and siblings less frequency. Churches come and go. Even the Bible is not eternal (cf. Matthew 5:18). In the end, all that will remain—all that will really matter—is our relationship with God through Christ.

Immersing ourselves in Jesus is being willing to take the long look and to keep our eyes on Him first and foremost. Jesus must be the most important person in our lives and in our world if we are to be His disciples.

Conclusion

When Jesus told His disciples so long ago that if anyone would follow Him, they must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow Him, He gave us the blueprint for immersing ourselves in Christ. To place ourselves fully at His disposal means we must die to self each day and put Him first in all aspects of our lives. It is a decision that we don’t have to make on our own; we have the Holy Spirit working in us to desire that and to make our minds up to do so.

Are you listening to the Spirit? Are you dying to self and immersing yourself in Christ?