Matthew16:24-26

24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.

25 For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

(v.24) Jesus is very clear. “If anyone wishes to come after Me”

What does that mean? It means to follow Jesus as Jesus demands. How is that?

(Romans 10:9) that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;

In order for one to begin “coming after Jesus” of course one must repent or turn from sin to Christ and believe on or have faith in Jesus Christ alone.

(Romans 10:9) There must be a confession of “Jesus as (not just Savior) but Lord.”

Now, that leads us to (Matthew 16:24)

“He must deny himself”

“Deny” means to disown and to refuse to associate with, in this case, to disown and refuse to associate with the person we are before coming to Jesus.

Wow! That is radically different than the way many churches present true salvation. Many, it seems are trying to sell you Jesus or beg you to just give Jesus a try. Some present salvation as just a little needed tweak of one’s life.

No!! Jesus demands that if one truly would be a follower of His, one must “disown” and “refuse to associate” with himself/herself.

Then Jesus said that one must “take up his cross.” Now, those to whom Jesus was speaking would clearly understand this language and that is that a cross is the instrument of death!!

One must die to self in order to follow Jesus.

This message was not popular then and it is not popular today.

Jesus does not promise to make all of our dreams come true. Jesus does not promise to get on our agenda and simply be our co-pilot to aid us in getting where we want to go in life and to possess what all we desire to possess.

No!! Jesus is saying that in order to truly and biblically follow Him, we must die to ourselves!

There is to be no ifs, ands or buts. Jesus must be Lord, ruler, boss of our lives.

The promise?? Not worldly wealth, though a Christian might be wealthy. Not a life with no suffering or pain.

In fact, following Jesus could cost us our earthly life, BUT we will have eternal life, literally God living in and through us and we will have the blessedness of fellowship with the Creator of the universe. We will live forever in the presence of His glory in Heaven.

We could go on and on about the blessings of eternal life, BUT it is sure NOT what the world and the prosperity gospel offers which is nothing more than what the lost world already craves!

Now, whosever will, let him come!