Sermon Notes
WHEN
LOSING IS WINNING
Steve W. Reeves
INTRODUCTION:
A.
This weekend we come to the end of “March
Madness,” the NCAA basketball tournament.
First
there were sixty-four teams, then
thirty-two. Then there was the “sweet sixteen”
followed by the “elite eight.” This weekend
we have had the “Final-ur” and tomorrow
night will be the National Championship.
1. To be tournament champions requires winning.
2. We like to win. We like the thrill of
victory. We like the achievement of triumph and
the sense of accomplishment that comes
with success.
B. How
can I know if I’m winning the race of life?
1. How can I be sure that I’m the
husband/wife God wants me to be?
2. How can I know that I am raising my
children in the right way?
3. How can I tell if I’m making the right
career choices?
4. Most importantly, how can I be certain
that I am in a right relationship with God?
C.
Would you be surprised to learn that the answer to each of these questions has
nothing to do with winning? It has
everything to do with losing. In Matthew 16:24-26
Jesus explains how losing is essential for
winning.
1. “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?”
2. According to Matthew these words came
shortly after a triumphant moment in the
ministry of Jesus when Peter had
confessed the Jesus was the Messiah and Jesus
had promised to build His church. You
can almost see the expectations of glory and
triumph in the eyes of the disciples.
3. Before they have the chance to
celebrate, however, Jesus springs a shocking
surprise on them. In vs. 21 Matthew
says, “From
that time Jesus began to show
His disciples that He must go to
Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders
and chief priests and scribes, and be
killed, and be raised up on the third day.” This
was not at all what the disciples had in
mind. Suffering and dying? These were not
things they expected of their Messiah.
4. Jesus had a very different message that
consisted of the following components.
I. Self-Denial
A. Jesus said, “If anyone wants to follow
me – be my disciple – he must deny
himself.”
1. The word, “deny” means to disown or
to separate from.”
2. The German theologian, Dietrich
Bonhoeffer, was one of the leading opponents
of the Nazi’s. In April of 1943 he
was arrested and accused of plotting against
Hitler. He was placed in a
concentration camp and executed two years later in
April of 1945. In his book, The
Cost of Discipleship, (1937) he wrote, “When
Christ calls a man, he bids him come
and die.” Bonhoeffer said that the greatest
enemy faced by the church was “cheap
grace.”
a. God’s grace is made available to
us because Jesus denied Himself. He lived
by the mantra, “Not my will but
thy will.”
b. Our reception of God’s grace
demands the denial of self. This doesn’t mean
that we “earn” grace. Our best
effort cannot demand grace but grace demands
our best effort.
B. This is what Jesus says in vs. 25, “For
whoever wishes to save his life will lose it;
but whoever loses his life for My sake
will find it.”
1. Paul put it in these words, “I am
crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I,
but Christ lives in me and the life
that I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the
son of God.”
2. What did Paul mean by this? In
Philippians 3:7-11 he said, “But whatever things
were gain to me, those things I have
counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
8 More than that, I
count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of
knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for
whom I have suffered the loss of all things,
and count them but rubbish so that I
may gain Christ, 9 and may be found in Him,
not having a righteousness of my own
derived from the Law, but that which is
through faith in Christ, the
righteousness which comes from God on the basis of
faith, 10 that I may
know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship
of His sufferings, being conformed
to His death; 11 in order that I may attain to the
resurrection from the dead.”
3. Paul was willing to give up
everything. He died to himself. He understood this is
what occurred at baptism.
a. Romans 6:3-4 – “Or do you not know that all of us who have been
baptized
into Christ Jesus have been
baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have
been buried with Him through
baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised
from the dead through the glory
of the Father, so we too might walk in
newness of life.”
b. In Colossians 3: 5 – “Therefore
consider the members of your earthly body as
dead to immorality, impurity,
passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to
idolatry.”
C. Deny yourself and live for Christ. Live
for yourself and deny Christ.
II. Cross Bearing
A. Not only are we to deny ourselves, Jesus
says we are to, “take up our cross.”
1. Jesus was telling his disciples that
following him was not going to be easy.
2. They understood what it meant to be
crucified.
a. Crucifixion had begun under the
Persians and was used by the Romans as a
means of executing slaves and
criminals.
b. It is estimated that about 30,000
people were crucified during the years
leading up to the first century
A.D.
c. On one occasion about 40BC, 2000
Jews were crucified at once. Condemned
individuals were forced to carry
their cross to the execution.
3. When Jesus said, “take up your
cross,” he is not talking about some burden that
we bear, (i.e. Aunt Flossie has a
terrible cross to bear”). He is saying “Just like I
am taking up my cross to die you are
taking up your cross to die with me.”
B. This cuts against the grain of socially
acceptable American Christianity.
1. Our faith is often based on
convenience rather than commitment.
2. Our service to God is often
superficial rather than sacrificial.
3. Our devotion to God is often
determined by our agenda rather than God’s
agenda.
C. In
his book, Radical, David Platt tells about attending a prayer meeting in
an Asian
country where Christianity is not
allowed. Everyone had to dress in black and wear
black hoods over their heads so they
would not be recognized. Under the cover of
darkness they went to a small house
where they crowded in under the light of a
single dim light. There were no chairs,
only a hard concrete floor. They stood in a
circle to pray for fellow believers in
prison. They prayed for hours. Platt looked
down and saw a puddle of water on the
floor. He was shocked when he realized it
was the tears of these people mingling
together in the floor. On another occasion a
group of farmers in the country came together
and asked him to teach the book of
Nehemiah. He taught them all day. They
asked him to come back the next day and
the next, etc… until they had studied
the entire Old Testament. They had never had
a Bible teacher before.
D. Last Sunday in LaHore, Pakistan, a bomb
blast targeting Christians killed dozens
and wounded 300 people, many of them
children, in a park. The rate of persecution
towards Christians around the world is
increasing.
1. Jesus says, “take up your cross and
follow me,”
2. In Luke 9:23 there is an additional
word. “Daily.” Are we willing to take up our
cross every day?
E. “Cross Bearing” by Carlyle Saylor,
(Pulpit Helps), March, 1982). “Well, here I am,
Lord. You said, "Take up your
cross," and I'm here to do it. It's not easy, You know,
this self-denial thing. You mind if I
look around over the crosses? I'd kind of like a
new one. I'm not fussy, you understand,
but a disciple has to be relevant these
days. I was wondering -- are there any
that are vinyl padded? I am thinking of
attracting others -- see? And if I could
show them a comfortable one I'm sure I could
win a lot more. And I need something
durable so I can treasure it always. Oh, is
there one that's sort of flat so it
would fit under my coat? One shouldn't be too
obvious. Funny there doesn't seem to be
much, choice here -- just that coarse
rough wool one I mean, that would hurt.
Don't You have something more distinctive,
Lord I can tell You right now, none of
my friends are going to be impressed by this
shoddy workmanship. They'll think I'm a
nut or something. And my family will be
just mortified. What's that? It's either
this one or none at all.”
III. FOLLOW ME
A. After denying ourselves and dying with
Christ Jesus sais, “follow me.” The literal
meaning of this is, “imitate me.”
1. 1 Corinthians 11:1 – “Be imitators of me, just
as I also am of Christ.”
2.
1 Thessalonians 1:6 – “You also became imitators of us and of the Lord,”
3. 1 John 2:6 – “The one who says he
abides in Him ought himself to walk in the
same manner as He walked.”
4. 1 Peter 2:21 – “For you have been called for this purpose,
since Christ also
suffered for you, leaving you an
example for you to follow in His steps,”
B. Once there was a man whose face was
badly deformed. People ridiculed him and
he soon decided to fine another town to
live in. He found a mask that fit over his
face. It was very handsome. In his new
town wearing his mask he attracted many
people.
He met a beautiful woman, fell in love and asked her to marry him. One
day a person from his old town showed up
and learned his true identity. In front of
all of his friends they ridiculed him
and forced him to remove his mask so they could
see how hideous he was. He had worn the
mask for so long that when he took it off
his own face had been reshaped to the
handsome image of the mask. In the same
way – the more we imitate Christ –
though it may seem unnatural at first – the more
we will be transformed into His image.
CONCLUSION:
A. As
Jesus concludes this discussion with his disciples he asks them a question.
“What
shall it profit a man to gain the whole
world and lose His own soul?”
1. Of all the questions we have asked in
recent weeks there is none more important
than this.
2. Nothing in life is more important that
your relationship with God. Your career, your
money, your investments, your home –
pale in comparison with your relationship to
God.
3. You may be a winner in every area of life
but you will lose it all one day. Only those
who lose their life for the sake of
Christ will find it.
B. We
urge you to give your life to Him beginning today as we stand and sing.
