Matthew-056

 

Opening prayer

Today, we come to another very important message which is at the very heart of discipleship. We cannot live the life of discipleship when we don’t properly understand the nature and the principles of discipleship. Previously, we have learned that to lift up the cross of discipleship upon our shoulders is to respond to the Lord Jesus’ call to share his ministry in the salvation of mankind. We are not merely to be saved, but we are to share that ministry with him to be saviors.

 

The Lord Jesus talks about our cross; Paul talks about Jesus’ cross

Let us first ask a very important question: When the Lord Jesus and the apostle Paul use the word “cross,” do they refer to the same cross?

In the Lord Jesus’ teaching, the word “cross” is used six times in the Synoptic Gospels and in each case it refers to the cross of the disciple. The Lord Jesus never uses the word “cross” to refer to his own cross, to his own sacrifice. That is quite significant.

Paul uses the word, “cross” some ten times in his letters, and he never refers to the cross of the disciple. Paul always refers to the cross of Christ. How can we understand this? The fact is Paul’s teaching always pre-supposes that you know what the Lord Jesus has taught. I have repeatedly reminded you of this. Unfortunately, today the average Christian doesn’t know what the Lord Jesus has taught. We must always try to remember what the Lord Jesus said because Paul’s writings basically comment on the Lord Jesus’ teach­ing. He always assumes that we fully understand and are aware of what the Lord Jesus taught. So he doesn’t quote the Lord Jesus’ words but says the same thing in different words.

 

The relationship of Christ’s cross and our cross

1. Christ’s cross always precedes our cross

The other question we need to ask is: What is the relationship be­tween Christ’s cross and ours? The first is that Christ’s cross always precedes our cross. That is, Jesus is bearing his cross in front of us and we being disciples follow after him. His cross is always first, ours always second, so our cross always pre-supposes his cross.

2. Christ’s cross is in the past, our cross is present and future

Secondly, when Paul speaks about the cross of Christ, it’s always in the perfect tense or in the past tense. Paul says in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ.” He is looking back to the cross of Christ from the point of view of being a Christian now. He is now a Christian because the cross of Christ was effective in his life in the past. We enter into the newness of life through the cross of Christ, not through our own cross. Our salvation always depends on his cross, not on ours. We must be very clear that we are neither fit to die for ourselves nor will our death have any atoning value what­soever. It is the cross of Christ that atones for sins. So Paul always uses the word “cross” (of Christ) to refer to a past event – Christ’s atoning work for our sins.

The cross of Christ is in the past and our cross is in the present. After the cross of Christ has cleared away our sins opening a new way of life for us, our cross comes from thereon. The Lord Jesus says, “Take up your cross daily,” a continuous present tense of carrying your cross constantly now. Since your past sins have been removed by the cross of Christ, it is your turn to take up the cross continually until the future, when we will complete our ministry of the saving work that Christ has entrusted to us.

3. Christ’s cross covers our sins; our cross is to pass on God’s life to others

The third point concerning the relationship of the two crosses is that Christ’s cross is to cover our sins, while our cross is to pass on God’s life that we have received through him to others. We saw this in the wonderful passage in 2 Corinthians 4:11-12.

He says, “We are communicating God’s life to you, and we are dying so that you may be living. This is how Jesus lived his life.”

I hope all this is clear to us, because it is important to understand the relationship of these two crosses.

 

Believe in the Christ God sent to die on the cross, not the cross or Christ’s saving work on the cross

What is more, Paul’s concept of the cross of Christ is quite different from ours today. He doesn’t say that we are saved because we believe in the cross or in the saving work of Christ, but we are to believe in Christ who was sent by God to die on the cross. The object of faith is not a thing or even a work. The object of faith is only Christ who reveals God. Paul sees that cross as having a definite effect upon my life and upon your life. That is why he says in Galatians 6:14,

Paul does not see the cross as something to believe in. He sees the cross as having done something to him. That cross has completely separated him from the world. And this separation is what the Bible means by holiness. The cross has made us holy through the power of God, by cutting our link with the world. Therefore, he says in Galatians 2:20,

Paul’s concept of salvation is no easy believism. He does not see the cross of Christ as something in the past so far away that it is believed as a historical fact. No, he says we are so united with Christ because the cross of Christ has cut us off from the world. This means that if I am alive to the world, the cross has not exerted its saving effect upon me. Are you alive to the world, the society in which every man lives for himself? Is this your way of thinking? Or are you a sheep rather than a wolf? The Lord Jesus pictures the society of this world as a society of wolves. So often, they use the expression, “they have passed a law with teeth in it” Wolves have harmful teeth all right, but the sheep don’t. We are separated from this type of society because the Lord Jesus wants to build “a society of sheep,” which is a new kind of society in which dominance is not gained by the sharpness of teeth to squash them into obedience. No, that is a society of the wolves. So the Lord Jesus said, “In the world, in a society of the wolves, the rulers lord it over one another. But among you it shall not be so because this whole society is a cross-bearing society, a society of people given over to the salvation of mankind.” (cf. Mt. 20:25)

 

The right attitude in taking up the cross is essential!

The message God will have me share with you today is this: It is most important that we get our attitude right in relation to cross-bearing. Many people do the right thing with the wrong attitude, and that is most unfortunate. It spoils the whole thing and renders your work of no value because the attitude is wrong. God looks upon the heart. He doesn’t just look upon what you are doing.

The Lord Jesus was sitting in the temple watching the religious Pharisees and the rich men come by throwing their coins into the offering box so that everybody could hear the clanging of the coins. They were thinking: “Do you hear how much money I give to God? How religious I am!” Is it wrong to give money to God’s work? No, but the attitude is wrong. Therefore, what is the right work has no more value because the attitude is wrong. We may say, “Okay, if Christ, God’s plenipotentiary says, ‘Take up the cross,’ I have to take up the cross. Who can argue with that? I do it because I don’t see any way out.” So the attitude is wrong.

Supposing God said to Abraham, “Offer up Isaac.” Do you think that God is merely concerned with the offering of Isaac? No, indeed! He is looking into Abraham’s heart to see what Abraham’s attitude is. Suppose Abraham brought Isaac up Mt. Moriah murmuring and grumbling, “What kind of God is this? He gives me all the promises and now he is telling me to kill my son! Of course, I have to do it! He is God! I can’t argue with him, right? He is the One I have to answer to, and I’m scared out of my wits not to do what he wants me to do. Come on, Isaac! I’m sorry about this, and don’t blame me. It’s all God’s fault. He told me to kill you, and he’s not very reasonable but he’s God. Neither of us can argue with him. So, be so good as to lie down so that I can cut your throat.” Would that kind of attitude be acceptable to God? Of course not! Although he is obeying God, his attitude is wrong, and God doesn’t accept this because God looks upon the heart.

I am fearful that we will all mumble and grumble all the way saying, “Okay, we have to take up the cross to be disciples of Christ. Who can argue with God? When I get there, I’m going to ask God, ‘Why did you ask me to do this? Surely, life would be a lot easier if you didn’t give me such a hard time.’” The attitude is wrong, and this attitude is crucial. What makes us greater than John the Baptist is not the fact that we can preach as well as John the Baptist, that we can do more miracles than John the Baptist, or copy his commitment to God in the external sense of wearing sheep skin, living in the wilderness, and eating wild honey and locusts. That is not the point.

 

All battles are won or lost in the heart

I hope you can understand that our attitude is absolutely important! I will put it like this: All spiritual battles are won or lost in the heart. If it’s lost here, it will be lost everywhere. Even if you seem to have won some victory externally, you have lost it all. No sacrifice is acceptable to God except it comes from a right attitude.

That is why I have often said, if you come to church and say, “God expects me to tithe. Okay, God, this is my tax! If I don’t pay, you’ll drag me to court. I can’t handle this. Here, have your tithe! I really needed that money, but that’s your command, so take what’s yours!” Do you think God wants your money? He won’t accept it. Take it away! God loves a cheerful giver. He wants the cheerfulness of your giving. “All battles are won or lost in the heart” means that your attitude is going to determine whether you are going to be victorious or defeated spiritually; whether you are going to be a mighty man of God, or you are going to be nothing. It is entirely in the attitude.

In the Parable of the Sower, why did one grain bring forth a hundred-fold, another sixty-fold and another thirty-fold? It’s the same seed, the Word from God. Why should the same seed produce less in the case of one, and more in the case of another? Is there any other explanation but that there is an important difference in attitude? There is no other explanation. If the seed is the same, the difference must be in the soil, and the parable tells us the soil is the heart. So the attitude of the heart makes the whole difference. If the church is to realize God’s vision for her, that everyone even the least, will become mightier than John the Baptist, we don’t merely say, “Okay, we’re going to take up the cross,” but we are going to come with the right attitude.

In my long experience of serving God, I have often been able to predict who will win and who will lose in the spiritual battle simply by looking at their attitude. There are some who are virtually invincible because their attitude is steadfast. There is a certain depth of joy even in the midst of burdens and problems. But there are others who don’t have the attitude to survive. Negative people can never survive or succeed in anything. Their attitude has determined their defeat from the beginning. I wonder if you are one of those. When you ask them to do something they will say, “Oh! It’s so diffi­cult! Too many problems!” When you suggest, “What about that?” They will say, “That won’t do!” They are negative towards every­thing. So they have guaranteed their failure from the beginning. If these people are ever to succeed in the spiritual life, there has to be a fundamental change of attitude. We will never become the channels of God’s saving mercy until the attitude is totally changed.

 

Joni, broken in body but not in spirit

Do you know the story of Joni? This girl was very athletic, and so enjoyed all kinds of physical exercise and sports. One day, she had an accident and broke her neck. Suddenly, this attractive, sporty and capable girl found herself paralyzed from her neck downwards. From then on, her attitude could have been: “I am finished!”, and you wouldn’t blame anybody in that condition to feel that she is finished. But not Joni! She determined that she would live whatever was left of her life for the glory of God even though she was now crippled. Of course, the experience devastated her at the beginning, until she pulled herself together and said, “I’m not going to be negative! I’m going to win this battle even if I’m crippled!” Slowly, a little bit of senses returned to her body and she learned to paint with her feet! Her pictures are exceedingly good and popular these days. Her message went out to encourage thousands of people because her spirit could not be broken even though her body was. The battle is won or lost in the spirit. What about us if she could succeed against these devastating odds? We are not crippled from the neck down. Your bodies are healthy and intact.

Yet, most people here will never achieve as much as Joni in her crippled condition in their life-time. Most people will not be able to give out the message with that clarity, joy, commitment and hope as she was able to do even in her crippled condition, to multitudes with physical, mental and spiritual problems who observe her. Although everything was against her, she was able to be victorious against hopeless odds because her attitude remained right. Her life becomes a shining example of what God can do through the right attitude. I would like each one of you to see what kind of potential each of you has. It is your attitude right now which will already determine whether you will accomplish anything for God or not in this life. It’s up to you to decide whether you will be something or absolutely nothing for God.

 

God’s grace is certainly sufficient for you to come through triumphant!

Someone once asked a black preacher about election in the sense of predestination. Being not highly educated in theology, he replied,

Although this is no great theological statement, there is truth in it. God’s grace is certainly sufficient for you, but whether you will be able to make the fullest use of that grace and come through triumphant depends on you. It’s not which way you will cast your vote, but what is your own attitude. I desire that each one of you can be so transformed in your attitudes by the grace of God, that we will have a generation of spiritual giants! If God’s grace is sufficient to accomplish it, what is hindering it? It must be you and me! We are holding back the fullness of his grace. We get stuck into our ruts, bad habits, annoyances and all these petty things wipe us out, so that we are left with nothing at all spiritually! We are a burden to others including ourselves. How I wish you can grasp very clearly the vital importance of attitude!

 

The attitudes of Elijah—the mighty man of God—made him then broke him

Zeal for God’s glory

Even the attitude within a mighty man of God can make or break him! I am constantly struck by what happened to Elijah (2 Kings chapters 18-19). You recall how Elijah challenged the entire nation of Israel, the king and the queen on Mt. Carmel because Israel had departed from God. It had gone off to worship Baal, the male god of fire, and Asherah, the female goddess of heaven. The whole nation had been misled by the queen and gone after idols, and no longer knew Yahweh, the living God. Look in the concordance to see how many times the Old and New Testaments speak of God as “the living God.” He is living! He is mighty! He is merciful! All grace is available from him, the living God! Capture a vision of that some time.

Elijah was the only prophet of the living God that was left. He challenged the whole nation and all the prophets of the false gods: “Did you say your god is real? Call on him and we will see whose God is real!” And the nation of Israel was called in by messengers to come to Mt. Carmel for this tremendous contest between the living God and these gods called Baal and Asherah. Elijah initially issued his challenge to the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah (1 Ki. 18:19), 850 prophets in total.

Imagine the scene on the top of this mountain 850 against 1 man, Elijah! Everyone far away into the plains would be able to see this great contest going on. Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal, the god of fire saying, “If you think your god is real, and he can answer you by fire, then put your sacrifice upon the altar, put wood under­neath it and see if Baal can accept the sacrifice. Let him kindle the fire, if he is the god of fire!” 850 prophets were shouting and cutting themselves with swords and lances until blood was gushing out upon them, “Baal, come on, come on! Send the fire please!” But nothing happened. So Elijah said, “Where’s your god? Maybe he’s gone for a nap. Maybe he’s taken a holiday. How long are you going to wait for him to set this sacrifice alight?”

After this had been going on all day, Elijah said, “That’s enough! It’s my turn, and I’m going to show you that the God I serve is the living God. You watch and see.” Elijah was the prophet of fire. And the wood lay there and the sacrifice on top of it. Then he said to the people, ‘If you think I’ve got some tricks up my sleeve, you can pour as much water as you like onto the sacrifice and the wood. Just pour on the water!” So they poured buckets of water and Elijah said, “Not enough! More! Drench the whole area of the sacrifice and the altar! I want you to see that God is the living God, and you will choose between the living God and these false gods!” The water was running off the altar overflowing in the trenches, and everything was soaking wet. Then Elijah said a very short, very quiet prayer – no long-winded pleading with God: “God, now you do it” (1Ki. 18:36-37).

The fire came down, lightning flashed out! God’s power came down and the whole sacrifice went up in flames! When the people saw this, they fell on their faces saying, “God is the living God! He is God!” You see the attitude of the mighty prophet Elijah. See him there one against the entire nation, against all the false prophets.

 

Afraid to be killed

Yet, such is the beauty of the Bible that it hides no failures of the men of God. It doesn’t say all the nice things and leave out all the unpleasant things. Jezebel the queen was absolutely furious that her prophets were killed by the Israelites because they now came to see who was the true prophet and who was false. So she sent a message to Elijah and said, “God do to me and more if by this time tomorrow you’ll still be alive!” In other words, she was saying, “I will kill you when tomorrow comes!” Then, the mighty man of God with his tail between his legs, was seen to flee from the scene. Oh, Elijah! What is this? One moment he saw the glory and majesty of God and the next moment, a woman’s threat was enough to send him running into the wilderness! Do you see that? Nothing has changed in terms of the outward situation. Israel was there. Was Elijah running from the scene?

Why I am telling you this is because faith is inseparably related to our attitude. Our attitude is the expression of faith. That is why it’s so important for our salvation. We can also tell whether a person is likely to be saved or not from the kind of attitude he has, because his attitude manifests whether or not he has faith. The key to under­standing Elijah’s attitude towards the queen’s threat is in one short sentence in 1 Kings 19:3, “Then he was afraid.” The mighty man of God was afraid of a threat to his life. Bear in mind carefully that fear is always the opposite of faith. When I find myself fearful, I will always find that my faith is very weak at that moment. It’s just as the Lord Jesus said to his disciples in Matthew 8:26, “Why are you afraid, o you of little faith?” You are fearful because you are of little faith. At that moment, Elijah’s faith seemed to have vanished from his attitude. He became frightened. He fled. I am saying this so that you realize even a mighty man of God has lapses in his attitude. Some­times, he cannot keep his attitude in focus. For a moment, Elijah weakened. You could say that he had disposed his faith for a moment. Of course, by God’s grace, he recovered quickly.

 

The Lord Jesus’ attitude to his cross is: lifted up to God and glorified

Since Elijah failed in a moment of weakness because his attitude was wrong at that moment, what should our attitude be if we are to be triumphant in bearing our cross? Look at the Lord Jesus’ own attitude to the cross. What was his attitude to the cross? Let us read two passages, the first being John 12:23-26:

Where will the Lord Jesus be when he said, “and where I am”? First, he will be going to the cross. Notice these words: “The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified.” What does his glorification mean?

Let us read John 12:32-34 –

In this passage, the Lord Jesus explains to us how he was going to die. The cross is laid on the ground and the person to be crucified is made to lie upon the cross and then nails are driven through a little further up his wrists where it does not sever the arteries, and the nails are driven through his feet. Then the cross is lifted up and dropped into the hole on the ground, thus this statement: “When I am lifted up, I will draw all men to me” (v. 32). The significant thing is the Lord Jesus uses the word hupsoō in the Greek which has a double meaning. It means both to lift up and to glorify, to exalt. “The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified” doxazō (v. 23).

This same word, hupsoō also occurs in Acts 2:33, 5:31 and in James 4:10, where it means exalt, glorify. This word is used 18 times in the New Testament so you can see its meaning very clearly. What does all this mean? It means that the Lord Jesus saw the cross not as some terrible thing that was going to happen to him, but he saw his crucifixion as his exaltation, his glorification, being lifted up to God. “The Son of man is about to be glorified.” He saw his death as glorification. Now that is very important to understand because if we have the same attitude, we will see our cross not as our burden or humiliation, but indeed, as our glorification. The Lord Jesus uses this expression of being lifted up to indicate his death on the cross five times in the Gospel of John. It occurs two times in John 3:14, and once each in John 8:28, 12:32, 34, which is the passage we have just been reading. Now this is clearly the attitude of the Lord Jesus towards the cross. Do we have this kind of attitude? Or do we see the cross as simply a tedious, hard burden that we have to bear?

 

You draw people to God because of the cross you bear

By his statement, “When I am lifted up, I will draw all men,” the Lord Jesus means that when he is lifted up on the cross, there will come forth such glory as will draw all men to God. Only when we are like him, lifted up on our cross, will the glory of God work through us to draw all men through us to God. Does your life possess an attractiveness, a pulling power that pulls other people to God? Even though people don’t ask you, even if they may oppose your faith, do they find it hard to resist the pull in your life pulling them? Do they sometimes have to become violent because the pull is so strong? The remarkable thing about the Lord Jesus’ preaching is that people could not remain indifferent to it. The pull was pulling them so hard that they had to react violently when they tried to reject the pull. Does your life have this kind of pull on other people, so that they are being drawn to God? They cannot explain why but there is this pull because of the cross that you bear.

 

Bearing our cross is:

We have to go out to save others but we don’t have to come back

The first point about this important passage is that we have no illusions that being lifted up has to do with the cross. What sacrifice! The Lord Jesus says, the Son of man came not to be served but to give his life as a ransom for many, that is, to give his life as a sacrifice. And in saving us he could not save himself, just exactly as it says in Matthew 27:42 “He saved others; he cannot save himself.”

To illustrate this point, let me tell you the story I read about a coastguard captain. Whenever a ship hits the rocks, or is caught in a storm, or is in any kind of damage or life-threatening danger, the coastguards go out in their boats regardless how terrible the weather, and risk their lives to save any survivors they can find. One day, in a terrible storm, the coastguards received an S.O.S., the Mayday message, to say that the ship had struck the rocks in the storm and was going down. So the coastguard captain gave the order to launch out to save any survivors that could be found. Then one young recruit looking at the terrible storm, said to him, “You can’t be serious. I mean, we can’t go out in a storm like this! We won’t come back alive!” He looked at the new recruit and said, “We have to go out but we don’t have to come back.”

What struck me was the answer of the coastguard captain. I pondered these words a lot: “We have to go out but we don’t have to come back.” For the captain, there was only one way: to go out to save those people. His thinking is: “I may not come back but that doesn’t matter. My task is to go out into the storm and get these people.” We have already made that decision, and we don’t re-consider our commitment in the face of the storm. Now that is sacrifice. That is commitment.

As I pondered these words often, I thought, “These people know more about commitment than Christians do.” When we take up the cross like the Lord Jesus, we are going out to save others, and we may not be able to save ourselves. We go and we don’t have to come back. Hopefully, we can come back in order to bring the others back. But if we can’t come back, that doesn’t matter either. These powerful words, “we have to go out but we don’t have to come back” illustrate exactly the meaning of the words said about the Lord Jesus in Matthew 27:42, “He saved others but he cannot save himself.”

That is the nature of the cross. There is the supreme expression of what it means when the Lord Jesus said that we are to take up our cross and follow him. That is the mentality expressed by this captain. “We bear our cross” means we go out into the storm to do God’s work, to save others, and in that process, we will lose our own lives. It doesn’t matter. We don’t have to come back. Now there encapsulated for us, is the attitude that the Lord Jesus expects to find in a disciple.

 

We voluntarily choose this cross

The second thing we must understand concerning this taking up of the cross is that it is not some sort of unfortunate incident that happens to us. We often hear it said, “Oh, we all have a cross to bear” and by that is usually meant that we have certain misfortunes in our lives that we have to cope with. Perhaps my health is bad, and I say this is my cross I have to bear. Or maybe my relatives are very inconsiderate, and that is the cross I have to bear. Or I have a terrible mother-in-law, and she really wears me out and that is the cross I have to bear. I have a terrible roommate who never washes his socks so I have to put up with the smell of salted fish every night. “Oh, it’s too bad! This is the cross I have to bear! He’s like that. What can I do?” Now let me say immediately that when we talk about cross-bearing, we are not talking about any of these things. This has nothing to do with cross-bearing in the Lord Jesus’ teaching, because if that is cross-bearing, then even the non-Christians have cross-bearing too. The non-Christians also have inconsiderate mothers-in-law, bad health and may also have bad roommates who don’t wash their socks. This has nothing to do with cross-bearing at all.

I would like you to see that this second point about cross-bearing always has to do with our own voluntary choice. Never misuse this term as even preachers have been known to misuse it to refer to the cross as a problem that comes into our lives without our choice. That has nothing to do with the meaning of the Lord Jesus’ saying at all. God does not impose on you to bear your cross, rather, you make that choice whether or not to take it.

The cross is what I choose to accept voluntarily or I never have it at all. The cross has to do with my own choice to go out to save others without having to come back. No one makes the choice for you. It is the cross that you choose entirely of your own volition. In the words of the Lord Jesus in John 10:18, “No one takes my life from me. I lay it down of my own choice.” You choose to take the cross when you take your stand with Christ. That is cross-bearing.

 

We do God’s work of sacrifice joyfully

The third thing is the joy of sacrifice. Not only is it voluntary but it also must not be borne in a grudging way. I don’t mean voluntary in the sense that you say, “Okay, I accept it because I have no choice.” There must be a joy that comes into it. You would say, “I have the privilege to share Jesus’ ministry of salvation! What a joy that he grants me a share in this kind of suffering!” Why? Is it because we enjoy suffering? No, we don’t enjoy suffering. Do you think Jesus enjoys suffering? Of course he doesn’t. Do you think the coastguard captain enjoys dying when he risks his life to save others? Of course not! The whole point is that this task has to be done! We lose whatever we have so that others gain whatever is necessary for their eternal welfare. We do God’s work joyfully!

 

Enduring tiredness to serve others is a small beginning

When we speak of cross-bearing, we think of the biggest things, but we should perhaps begin by thinking of cross-bearing in a very small, practical way. For example, we learn to endure some tiredness in serving other people. In the days when I was in London, there was revival in the church, and people came to me for counseling literally day and night! Often, by one o’clock in the morning, I was utterly exhausted so that I could no longer think clearly. Yet, there were still many people who wanted counseling to get right with God. I felt that my weariness was a very small sacrifice to make in order that they might get eternal life. What a blessing to suffer a tiny bit for God! Not only do we bear the cross but bear it joyfully!

I must say, sometimes I was not as joyful as my dear brother in London. In those days, he was a medical student and yet his devotion to God and to me was most touching. I was asked to preach in Northampton which is quite some way north of London, and this dear brother pleaded that he might have the chance to drive me to Northampton even after having worked for several nights and days. I could have taken a bus, but he insisted on driving me. We stayed in Northampton the whole day because I preached in the morning and evening, and he drove me back at night. When we got back to London after several hours of driving, we were standing in the living room talking to several brothers and sisters, sharing what God had been doing. Then I noticed that this dear English brother – who loved God and the Chinese people – was literally falling asleep on his feet out of utter exhaustion! It was the first time in my life that I actually saw a person sleep while standing! He stood there with his eyes closed and he looked as though he was going to fall on the floor any moment. Then I said to him, “Are you all right?” He opened his eyes slightly, looked at me, and a smile broke out on his face. Isn’t it amazing! He could still smile in his utter exhaustion because he had the joy of sacrifice. His doing with joyfulness, and that sweet smile on his face as he struggled to lift his eyelids, really touched my heart!

Only people like this, who sacrifice joyfully to lay down a bit of weariness for others, can minister the Word of life and talk about laying down one’s life for others. What an attitude this brother showed! No wonder he has been able to serve God in the malaria-infested jungles in South-east Asia with his whole family for so many years, exposing his wife and children to the danger of malaria, with never a complaint. When I saw him again recently, he was still always joyful with a smile. In fact, he had just received a message from his wife to say that their little boy had broken his arm, and their daughter was sick. Of course, deep-down he was concerned about his children, but he did not fear because he had faith. His smile on his face showed that he was absolutely confident in God.

 

The Lord Jesus’ example of joyful commitment to God and to us

The fourth point I would like to share is the Lord Jesus’ commitment first to God his Father, then to us, by joyfully loving and obeying him to love us and die for us, seeing it as his glorification.

Can you see that Jesus himself is obeying the most important commandment he taught us in Mark 12:29-31? (par. Mt. 22:36-40)

Sometimes, when the pressure is so heavy and I am quite exhausted, I sit down and turn my heart to God: He is totally, unconditionally committed to me. He knows we are weak, so he sent Jesus, who has suffered when tempted but overcame, who died the most terrible death on the cross but saw it as joy and glorification to inspire us. He lived out his teaching showing us how strong and committed we could be; helping us feel less afraid and less frustrated; making our rocky paths of trials, temptation and persecution seem less daunting. Then, Yahweh God showed his eternal commitment to the totally committed Christ Jesus by raising him from the dead to sit at his right hand in his kingdom.

What have I to fear? What problem is there in this world that I cannot face with Yahweh God? Is someone in trouble? Is someone hurt in the family? God is unconditionally committed to me. Think of it until the message soaks into you that God eternal is committed to you when you are totally committed to him, as the Lord Jesus is. Then no fear can survive when we focus our minds upon God in this way. Do you realize how much God’s commitment is to you? We talk about our commitment to him, but our commitment to him is absolutely nothing compared to his commitment to us. We must learn to imitate Christ to be committed to him.

Many times in China, I had occasion to remember God’s words in Hebrews 13:5, “I will never leave you nor will I ever forsake you”—the literal translation from the original—in the midst of heavy pressure, when the security police was questioning me about why I went to church, putting pressure to get me to write down my name when I went to church. God’s assurance to us is unconditional and permanent: “I promise I will never leave you. I am totally committed to you.” But these words are not for any old sort of Christian. They are a quotation from Joshua 1:5, addressed to Joshua, who was a totally committed servant of God. He and Caleb were the only two people who were allowed to enter the Promised Land. This promise is not for any wishy-washy Christian to claim, rather, it is for committed Christians. When you are totally committed to him, you can be certain that his total commitment to you will make your commitment to him look like nothing of value. It’s so wonderful to ponder this very thought!

 

Can you see the cross as exaltation, as glory?

1.The cross is glory only when you have a new way of looking at things

Why is the cross seen as exaltation? Can you see the cross as exaltation, as glory? Or do you see the cross as a burden? Firstly, you can only regard the cross as glory when you have a totally new way of looking at things.

The cross was a punishment of death for the enemies of the State in the Roman Empire. These were the people who were crucified as the anti-revolutionaries of the Roman State. It was absolutely the worst form of death and humiliation in the Roman world. There was noth­ing lower than crucifixion. How can this humiliation be regarded as glorification? You can only think in this way when your mind is totally changed in your sense of value. Did you know that what is glory in the world is shame in God’s sight? So be very careful if you are glorified in the world. These words of the Lord Jesus to the Pharisees in Luke 16:15 have often struck me as I pondered them:

What is glory in the world is abomination or disgust in the sight of God. His sense of values is the opposite of the sense of values of the world. Put in another way, what is humiliation among men is glory in the sight of God. That is why the Lord Jesus says to his disciples, “When people slander you, when they revile you, when they perse­­cute you, praise God for that because they did that to the prophets. Praise God! Feel happy! Blessed are you when these things happen to you!”

Can you have this attitude? I find it difficult. None of us like it when people to slander us, especially when we know that we have aimed to be faithful. But that’s because our thinking has not been trans­formed. We have not got God’s sense of values. Otherwise, when you are persecuted by people you love, when they say bad things about you, you would thank God for it. It is exaltation in the eyes of God. That is a revolutionary way of thinking.

The Lord Jesus also says in John 5:44,

We cannot believe because our sense of values is untransformed. Let God change our thinking. When we know the living God, the glory of the world means nothing to us. I find it more and more wonderful that it’s like so much water off a duck’s back for me when people praise me. In fact, when people praise me it frightens me because I’m wondering if I’m on the right track as far as God is concerned. I’m afraid of being glorified. I would rather that God gives me glory. And I am learning to accept humiliation and misunderstanding joyfully by thinking, “Thank God for it! That’s what happened to my Lord Jesus!”

 

2. The cross is glory as it is the expression of God’s love and power

The second reason why the cross is exaltation is because it is the ultimate expression of God’s love and power. Think of the fact that at the cross, those who are crucified are paraded stark naked before the eyes of everyone! So people were looking at Jesus stripped naked, and ridiculing him when he was already in agony and suffering: “He saved others but he can’t save himself.” This suffering of double humiliation is unspeakable! Crucifixion is the worst form of death that man could ever dream of. Yet, think of this remarkable fact that Christ transformed this horrible instrument of torture into a symbol of glory by his attitude. He transformed this horrific cross into a symbolic ornament of beauty that women like to hang around their necks in jade, precious stones, gold and other metals. He takes what is hateful and makes it beautiful. That is the transforming power of God working in him.

Men are always doing the opposite. They take what is beautiful and make it ugly. The front ground of a lovely camp is littered with garbage and filth. Man pollutes everything. He takes something beautiful and makes it ugly. Consider how one man Hitler could exterminate 6 million Jews. One man could bring about so much death. But with Christ, one death brought forth so much life by God’s grace. Isn’t it wonderful? What will happen with your life?

 

3. The cross is exaltation, for the cross is the place of communion with God

As Paul says in Philippians 3:10, “the fellowship of his sufferings.” Remember that God is never so close to you as when you suffer, just as he was never so close to Jesus when he suffered. Therefore Christ sets an example for us when we suffer. When you are having a good time, you may often find that God seems pretty far away. However, you can be sure of one thing: when you are suffering, God is right near you. When you look through the accounts in Acts, you will see that whenever the apostles were made to suffer or persecuted, God’s presence was there. Remember God’s amazing release by an angel of Peter twice when he was imprisoned (once together with the apostles). Remember what God did when Paul and Silas were thrown into the Philippian jail. When you suffer for his sake, you are going to know what is the sweetness of communion with him. 1Peter 4:14 says,

The Lord Jesus says in John 12:32: “When I am lifted up I will draw all men” The Spirit of God’s glory was upon him, and glory has a very attractive quality about it: it draws people to God.

Can you draw people to God? Have you ever drawn anyone to God? This message speaks to our hearts. It may be because something is wrong with your attitude. Your life has no draw, it has no glory; there is no beauty of God in it that people desire. Do your colleagues say, “Wow! There’s something attractive about this person. I like to talk to this person”? They like to draw near to you because the cross you take up—your own choice to go out to save others without having to come back—exalts you. It is glorification. You have no glory because you have not taken up the cross.

Let us be quiet before God in prayer.

 

Closing prayer

Precious God, we pray that you will so work in our hearts as to transform our thinking, that we may see that your commandments are not burdensome. On the contrary, when we walk in your commandments, and when we take up the cross and respond to your Son’s call to follow him, there comes great glory upon us and your presence is with us in a unique way, so that our lives begin to exert your attractiveness. It begins to pull upon the lives of others, drawing them to yourself. O precious Lord, we pray indeed that you would change our attitude, we beg of you. Transform us in the innermost parts of our being that never again will we think of cross-bearing as some kind of martyrdom of our lives that we need to wallow in self-pity; or that it is some kind of burden that we must drag through life. Rather, may we see it is the instrument by which your glory will be manifest in our lives. Precious God, make your people attractive in these days through Christ’s cross, that the world may be drawn to you through your people and through each one of us here. Thank you. Amen.