 Today we're going to be looking at, we'll be looking at, verses 31 through 33, then 34 through 38. And you're going to see, as I mentioned a moment ago, how this connects. And what I have a normal thing, my normal way of teaching for those who perhaps have not joined us in this, is that I give a reminder of what we've seen. I'll build a few things for those perhaps who weren't with us when we looked at the previous verses. I'll fill those things in for you, then move into verses 33, 31 through 33. So beginning at verse 31, reading to verse 33, Mark writes, he began to teach them that the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed. And after three days rise again. He spoke this word openly. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But when he had turned around and looked at his disciples, he rebuke Peter saying, get behind me Satan, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men. And so Jesus is in a region there in Israel. It's called the region of Caesarea Philippi. Caesarea Philippi is about 25 miles north of the Sea of Galilee northeast. And in that particular region, there have been various forms of worship over the years. The remains of 14 temples that were dedicated to the pagan god Baal are there. A temple that has been dedicated to Caesar Augustus is there. There's a grotto there that is called the gates of hell. All of these things are in the general vicinity of where Jesus is ministering. And so the entire area is riddled with various forms of ancient paganism. There's nature worship, there's sensuality, there is man worship. It's all practiced in that area. And it's in that place that Jesus began to prepare his men for his sacrificial death. Now, early in his ministry, Jesus had made a statement that eluded to his death. John records that at the first cleansing of the temple, which was at the beginning of his ministry, that Jesus had entered the temple. And as he did so, he found merchants and money changers who were doing business. John tells us that he made a whip of cords and drove them out with a sheep, with the oxen, and even with the men. And then he began to pour out the changers' money tables. He overturned their tables and threw them, the money changers, out. In John 2.16, it reads that he said to those who sold doves, take these things away. Do not make my father's house a house of merchandise. Well, when he did this, the authorities were outraged. They demanded an explanation. John 2, verse 18, they said, Since you do things, these things, who gave you this authority? What right do you have to do this? Well, Jesus in John 2.19 said, Well, in verse 20 of the same chapter, they said it's taken 46 years to build this temple. You're going to raise it up in three days. Well, John points out that Jesus was speaking of the temple of his body. In verse 22 of the same chapter, he went on to say that they didn't remember this until after he was resurrected. And the result was that they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said. So Jesus alluded to his resurrection, his death and resurrection, destroyed this temple. He had alluded to it in the early days of his ministry. Well, now it's the closing of his earthly ministry, and he continues now to prepare them for what is about to happen. You see at this time, Jesus is still drawing huge crowds and they're coming specifically for his miracles. The blind could see, the deaf could hear, the lame could walk, the hungry were fed, and the dead had been raised to life. We saw earlier in the fifth chapter of Mark how that Jairus' daughter had been raised to life. Well, Luke chapter 7 also records how Jesus said, raised a widow's son to life. He records how that Jesus was passing by, he encountered a widow whose son was on his way to burial and Luke points out that Jesus had compassion and he speaks to the widow and he says, do not weep. He then touched the open coffin and he said, young man, I say to you, arise. And the young man set up, began to speak and the crowd ran off screaming. No, and the crowd was amazed. They were startled. Luke 7, 16 and 17 says, fear came upon all, they glorified God, saying a great prophet has risen up among us and God has visited his people and this report about him went throughout all Judea and all the surrounding region. So Jesus' fame is great, the multitudes are coming. They want to hear him, they want to receive from him. And so the disciples see popularity, but Jesus saw the people's hearts. They weren't coming to him for salvation and many were not genuine believers. And so to reveal this to his men, he had asked them a question. He said, who do men say that I am? What are people saying about me? Who do they think that I am? Now as we've seen, the men knew what was being said. They repeated it to Jesus. So he then asked them, but who do you say that I am? They had said, well, John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, one of the prophets. That was common things that were being said. But then he got personal. Who do you say that I am? And that's when the apostle Peter said, you are the Christ. You are more than a prophet. You are Messiah, you are the Christ, the anointed one. And Matthew records how Jesus responded to this confession in Matthew 16, verse 17. Jesus replied, blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah. This was not revealed to you by man, but by my father, but by my father in heaven. God has revealed this to you. You can't take any credit for it. You didn't study to discover this. You didn't have a series of questions that I answered. No, my father's drawn you. My father has revealed this to you. In John 644, Jesus said, no one can come to me unless a father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. You can't take credit for this. My father revealed this to you. And then Jesus warned them that they were to tell no one about what they had been told. Why is that? Well, he still needed to go to Jerusalem. He needed to yield up his life. He needed to accomplish his mission. They knew he was Messiah, but had yet to understand that he was to die. And so he begins to teach them. Notice verse 31 here in chapter 8. He began to teach them that the son of man must suffer many things, be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed. And after three days, rise again. So he began to teach them. Now what he's teaching them is something they wouldn't have expected to hear. They knew that he's Messiah, but the thought that he was to lay his life down was unheard of. It was beyond what they were able to grasp. It's like what Isaiah chapter 55 verses 8 and 9 says, for my thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways. My ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways. My thoughts than your thoughts. The idea that the Messiah, that Christ would die, was not something that had been popular during that time. They didn't understand that. And so what Jesus begins to do at this point is to speak concerning his death and resurrection. And he's going to repeat that several times. So again, remember in Matthew, Jesus had asked the question, who do men say that I, the son of man, am? So when he had asked that question, the son of man is a description that Jesus used to self-describe over 80 times in the New Testament. It's actually his favorite way of speaking of who he is. It revealed that he is Messiah as well as revealing his perfect humanity. And so he would speak of it in that way. And so he's using the term son of man. And so he began to teach them that the son of man must suffer many things. And so they received the revelation of who he is. So Jesus now speaks of his soon death. His men didn't realize that he was revealing to them how the church was about to be born. The church was to be born through his death, burial, and resurrection. Now up until his time, Jesus has said nothing explicit about suffering, dying, and being resurrected. As I mentioned earlier, he had given brief insights into this. Again in John 219, destroyed this temple in three days, I'll raise it up. In Matthew 1240, he had said the son of man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. So this was not something incidental to salvation. This is the plan of salvation that the son of man would die, be buried, and resurrected. This was the plan of salvation from eternity past. Revelation 13 verse 8 speaks of Jesus as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. In John 1.29, John the Baptist sees Jesus coming to him and John says, Behold the Lamb of God who takeeth away the sin of the world. And so Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection is not something incidental. It's the heart of salvation. And so he's speaking to them and sharing them about this. And notice again in verse 31, he began to teach them that the son of man must, he must suffer many things, be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. So he must suffer many things. He must be rejected. The son of man must be betrayed. He must suffer. He must die. And he must be resurrected. He must suffer. Verse 31, he must suffer at the hands of the elders, chief priests and scribes. He must be rejected. When it speaks of the elders, chief priests and scribes, that's describing what is called the Jewish High Council, the Sanhedrin. He's going to be tried and rejected by this council. That's what he's saying. Again in Isaiah 53 verse 3, speaking of Messiah, he is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. And we hit as it were our faces from him. He was despised. We did not esteem him. He was rejected and despised and we didn't esteem him. He must be rejected. And he must be killed. Why? Because he's the Lamb of God. He takes away the sin of the world. Isaiah 53, 10 says it was the Lord's will to crush him, cause him to suffer. And though the Lord makes his life in offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days. And the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. So he must be killed, but he must be raised after three days. In other words, he's going to conquer death. He's saying, I will give up my life, but will be raised from the dead. In John's Gospel, chapter 10 verse 18, he said, no one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, authority to take it up again. In this command I receive from my father. So I'm going to lay my life down, but I'm going to take it back up again. And notice in verse 32, this he spoke openly. Well, as he's doing this, Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. So picture this for a moment. I know none of us have ever rebuked God, told him he's doing things wrong, and this is the way you really ought to run the universe. I have a better insight than you. But can you picture that for a minute? Now, the apostle Peter is there. He's the son of the Christ, the son of the living God. He had said that just a little while before. So he's received revelation. Blessed are you, Simon, by joint affliction blood. It's not revealed this to you, but my father in heaven. So blessed are you for this. So he's Simon Peter, the receiver of revelation. And so now Jesus is saying, this is what's going to take place. And picture, you know, Dr. Peter putting his arm around this tired and grumpy man and leading him off in a pride because he doesn't want to rebuke him in front of everybody. He needs to do this privately. That's how you do it. And then he begins to speak to him and he says to him, let this be far from you that this should occur to you. I see that. And I think this is just an amazing, amazing arrogance. He rebukes the Lord God himself in human flesh. Far be it, Matthew 1622. Far be it from you, Lord. This shall not happen to you. This shall not happen to you. Well, verse 33 gives us Jesus's response when he had turned around and looked at his disciples. He rebuked Peter, saying, get behind me, Satan, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men. That word, rebuked, means to admonish. To admonish in the way of superior would rebuke someone under his orders. The apostle Peter had rebuked Jesus as if Jesus was under his orders, but now Jesus speaks to him. And notice, he says in verse 33, get behind me, Satan, you are not mindful of the things of God. Peter had become Satan's mouthpiece, trying to get Jesus to avoid the cross. And imagine Peter shocked. Why would Jesus say something like that to him? Well, Peter was contradicting what Jesus said. He was resisting God's plan of salvation. He's saying, my way for you is better than the Father's design for redemption. And that's why Jesus in verse 33 says you are not mindful of the things of God. Satan put this thought into your mind. Even as God had inspired Peter's thoughts a little while before, Satan has now inspired him. You see, Satan's desire was to divide Peter and the rest of the apostles from Jesus. He was inspiring them to oppose Jesus's way and to devise their own path of salvation. Which is, by the way, what people do all the time. For a lot of people, the idea of salvation coming through one man laying down his life on a cross voluntarily and then being resurrected is a bit ridiculous. The heart of many, if not almost all, human-oriented and demonic-inspired religious systems is that we earn our own salvation. We do good works. We do the best we can. We go to church when we can or whatever religious faith we might practice and we try to be devoted to those things. And so the heart of salvation coming from Satan's perspective will always be man's efforts. We try to be good. We do the things that we think are right. We try to keep certain commands, certain rituals, certain ordinances, certain rules. We try to do that, especially those who have a hunger to have a relationship with God. And very often what happens is we create or we devise our own methodology of being right with God. But Jesus is saying, no, I'm going to be betrayed. I'm going to be put to death. But on the third day, I will be resurrected. And here's the apostle Peter saying, no, let this be far from you. Listen, you've been ministering for a long time. We're going on around three years now and multitudes keep thronging you and you keep healing and teaching and you're not getting any rest and we can't even go across the lake without a storm coming. And you have to put that down. You have demonic welcoming committees and dead people you're raising. You know, you need a rest. You're really stressed. You really need a rest. And then Jesus looks at him and rebukes him. You are not mindful of the things of God. You're devising your own way to salvation and that inspiration is not from the Spirit of God. That inspiration is from Satan himself and you have become his mouthpiece because if you're telling people that they can be right with God Jesus Christ, you have become Satan's mouthpiece. The only way a person can be right with God is through the Son Jesus Christ. That's Christianity. That's what we believe. That's what the church has taught for over 2,000 years. There's only one way to God and that's through Jesus Christ. There's only one way to be made right with God. That's through the blood of Christ. There's only one way to be born again. That's by the Spirit of God. And that comes through the preaching of the gospel and the open reception by faith of that message and the confession of sins saying, God, be merciful to me. I'm a sinner. I cannot make myself right with you but Lord, you can make me right with you. I give up. I yield to you. Come into my life. I want to be born again and that's how you become right with God. And the problem is, Satan says, no, just do your best. Work hard. Work hard. So here's the apostle taking Jesus to the side. I want to privately rebuke you. I don't want to embarrass you in front of the men when I give you my revelation knowledge. I just did it a moment ago. I'll do it again. Far be it from you that this should happen to you. And Jesus says, get the behind me Satan. Adversary. You are not mindful of the things of God. God has not filled your mind with these thoughts. This is a satanic thought and you're yielding to it. This is a critical moment because the apostle Peter is using his influence to inspire people away from what God is saying through Jesus Christ. He's inspiring them to oppose and devise their own plan for salvation. Jesus is revealing the way of salvation but Satan's desire, modify it, make it easier, eliminate the cross. It would be by the death of Christ and the resurrection of Jesus that Satan and death was defeated. In Hebrews 2, 14 and 15, the writer says, since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death. That is the devil. And free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. Believers have no reason to be afraid of death. No, I'm not saying. Let's all go out after church in front of traffic on the freeway. We'll all go to heaven quicker. I'm not saying to be presumptuous. I'm certainly not saying that believers test God. We don't. Yet at the same time we entrust our souls to him. We entrust ourselves to him. God has a clock that at a certain point no matter what I do, that's going to be my moment. I don't want to be presumptuous and speed that up by any means. I want to make sure that I'm on his timetable. It is appointed unto men to die once, but after this judgment. So I want to live my life in full for the Lord. And then at the moment he says come, then I want to come and be with him. That only makes sense to me. But a lot of people are afraid and even sometimes believers, but the world itself is afraid because they don't know where they're going to go. They have no idea what's going to happen to them after death. They hope they're going to go to a better place and very often you'll see those who don't know the Lord speaking of a friend or family member who has died. And I've heard so many times it'll even be on television. They'll be revealing that some well-known person an actor, superstar of some sort, some musician died. And then you hear his friend giving a eulogy and saying, well, you know, right now he's looking down at us. And they think that everybody who dies goes to heaven. The only thing you need to do to go to heaven is die. But that's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible says it's appointed to die one time after this judgment. So it's not what we do after because there's no second chance this is what we do before. And that's why Jesus says you are an offense to me. You're given a different way of salvation. The origination of this particular thought is not my father who a moment ago gave you that sense that I am the Christ, the Son of the Living God. That was from my father. But by saying to me that I shouldn't go this way is to undermine the fact that God has called me the Lamb of God, the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world. The plan of salvation has already been set up. And for you to oppose it, you're becoming the mouthpiece of the enemy. You have set your mind on things below and you haven't seen what God is going to do. In Colossians 3 verse 2, Paul said it like this, he said set your mind on things above, not on the things that are on the earth. So Peter was inspired but not by the Lord to actually come against the Lord's salvation effort as he has come to lay his life down on the cross and be resurrected. But later Peter would understand and would preach this message to the nation. In Acts chapter 2 verses 23 and 24, he said this man, speaking of Jesus, this man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge. And you with the help of wicked men put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. As is true in so many spiritual lessons, Peter later would understand what Jesus meant and he wrote of it in 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 18. Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit. He didn't understand it then, but he understands it later. And that's the way it works. With God, things are already settled. We're going through the book of Ephesians, I was mentioning recently that Paul speaks of us as being seated with Christ in heavenly places. That the work of God is so sure that that even speaks of it as if we're already enjoying that though we're still continuing through this life. I was mentioning last Wednesday that I was watching this football game last week called the Super Bowl. And you know, I'm not a radical fan, but my dad was a Rams fan and so that's my sentimental team and all of that. I don't have any gear or wear any hats or whatever. I don't have bumper stickers. I don't run around honking my horn with flags. I don't do that, but I do like the Rams. That's the team of choice. And so I was watching the game, my wife and I were. But I'm one of these guys who have paws, so I pause it. There's a reason they give you the ability to pause. So I pause the game because I get bored, you know. Well now, you know, my wife is seated next to me and Marie's bored too, so I put it on hold and it's like six minutes, less than seven minutes to go. And we're losing. The Rams are losing. And so I'm plotting ways to take my own life. No, I'm just kidding. So I'm watching it and I turn around and I'm no football coach. It always makes me laugh when so many people say, why didn't you? I'm no football coach. I don't know what to do. So I turned to my wife and I say to her, you know, I said, I saw them come back against the, what are they called? Oh, the 49ers. I saw them come back against the 49ers. I said, this is always possible. And so, you know, they're marching up the field and the Rams are losing. And it's like six, almost seven minutes to go. And I'm giving this wisdom to my wife. She's so interested in, and so, so the phone rings and I've got it on pause. It's my son, David. Super Bowl champs. He yells. I go, what? He goes, dad, are you watching the game? I sit on pause. Thanks. Thanks, son. Oh, dad, I feel so bad. Well, thanks. I really, I said, you know me, I put it on pause. Oh, I'm so sorry, dad. We won. I said, yeah, I kind of figured that out. We won. And he felt so bad, my poor boy. But you know, I was telling Wednesday night that as I was watching the game, I watched it with a different attitude because we won, even though I had it on pause. I knew the outcome. And I started thinking, you know, the Lord uses all kinds of things to try and teach me. He said, son, sometimes you walk as if we lost. It's like it's on pause. So when I turned it back on and there's an incomplete pass here and there's a bad play there. And then here comes my, my favorite cup and my cup, my cup runneth over. And so that, and, and, and he makes all these fantastic plays and the game is won and it's all fantastic and all of that. I started thinking, guys, we can think we're losing, but we win in Jesus Christ. It's over. The game is over. We have to still go up the field. We still are going to score, if you will, but the game is over. And sometimes it may look like it's not going to happen. It's not going to, we're not going to win. But I, I, I read my scriptures. I've seen that the Word of God teaches us that, that in Christ, because he died was buried and was resurrected, that I have life because he lives. I can live because the one, the spirit who raised him from the dead dwells in my mortal body, Paul said, and he will give life to you. So our names are written in the Lamb's book of life. And even though it appears sometimes that the enemy is going to win, we won. You have to have that mental, that mental understanding. We won. And, and, and that, that's something that, that the apostle Peter didn't know at that time, but he came to know. And that's why he can make that clear, that he was put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the spirit and the same spirit who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us and gives life to our bodies. So Jesus was making one thing very clear to him and to the people. The way of salvation isn't easy. It includes, on Jesus's part, pain and suffering. And in these verses that we're about to look at, Jesus now makes that abundantly clear because he continues down to verse 34 and it says, when he had called the people to himself with his disciples also, he said to them, whoever desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it. Whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me in my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him, the son of man, also will be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his father and the holy angels. And so as he is spoken concerning the way of the cross that he's about to take and that he is going to suffer even though his men don't want to hear it, he goes on and he begins to share with others the cost of discipleship. Notice how it says that he had called the people to him with his disciples. So Jesus is giving an insight into the cost of being a disciple and we're going to see that it is going to be summed up really with the words self-denial. This call is so very different than what is often presented in today's churches. This call that Christ gives is not an invitation to health. It's not an invitation to wealth. It's not a promise of a continuous trouble-free life. It is a call to complete surrender to him. It's called a humility and sacrifice. It's a call to hardship for his name's sake. And so he's calling the people to himself with his disciples. Now Jesus had just told his disciples that he would suffer and die and they're still basically still digesting this and he begins to speak to his disciples as well as a crowd and as he's speaking to them, he begins to share that following him is costly. It includes sacrifice and suffering for the sake of the kingdom. Up until this point his disciples have seen Jesus as a heroic figure. The idea that suffering and sacrifice would be part of their journey is a new idea. It isn't that Jesus hadn't prepared them for this. He's already alluded to it. He's already spoken of this in Matthew 5, 11, and 12. He said, Blessed are you when people revile you, the word revile speaks of saying something to your face, belittling you, demeaning you, coming against you. You can speak of all forms of persecution, including the physical and then saying or uttering all kinds of evil against you is what they say behind your back. He covers kind of the gamut of the things they say to your face. They can harm you. They'll speak against you to others. He said, Blessed are you when this takes place. This is the cost of following me. By sharing this with this man and the people he's laying out the cost. This is a call for all people to become his disciples. It's not just a call to his apostles. Let me share a few things with you about that. When we speak of believers in Jesus Christ, we normally, the normal way to speak of a believer in Christ is to refer to him as a Christian. But the word Christian is found in Scripture. The word Christian singular is found in Scripture only two times. The word Christian, to describe a believer in Christ, is only used two times in the book of Acts chapter 26 and 1 Peter chapter 4. The word Christian's plural is only used once in Acts 11-26. In Scripture, the word Christian is not the most common word used to speak of someone who follows Christ. In the New Testament, the word disciple is the most common word used to speak of a believer. The word disciple is used 29 times. The word disciple's plural is used 243 times for a total of 272 times in the New Testament. The most common way to describe a follower of Christ is not to refer to them as a Christian. As a matter of fact, the word Christian was originally coined as a word to be a slam against them. The word Christian literally says is little Christ. And so it was mocking. They would say, ah, here comes the little Christ. Here comes the Christian. And it was not used as a way to describe them so much as a follower of Christ but to mock them. But the word disciple is a different word. The reason the word disciple is used is really simple because a disciple is someone who follows the Lord Jesus Christ over a lifetime. And not just occasionally. The United States is filled with people who profess to be Christians. No knock on them, they do. They profess to be Christian. If they take some kind of survey and the religious question of the religion comes up and says, what are you? They'll write Christian because they're not a Buddhist, not a Muslim, and they're not something else. So they were raised in the United States, therefore I must be a Christian. So there are a lot of people who profess to be Christians. And we are very still, still a very religious nation. We're entering soon into the season when people will find it appropriate to go to church. There's basically two times we know this where people will go to church voluntarily outside of going to a funeral or a wedding. And that's going to be Christmas or a lot of people to church on Christmas and Easter. Good Friday and Easter. So a lot of people will go and they'll appear in church. And when I was a kid, I was raised in the Catholic faith. And so they called us once a year Catholics or twice a year Catholics. Because we would come once or twice a year. That's the way it was then. I don't know if they still use that phrase to this day. But that's what we were referred to because we didn't go regularly. Oh, that's a once a year Catholic. That's a twice a year Catholic. And that's how they spoke of it. But a lot of people in the United States are once a year or twice a year Christians. That's a fact. And so they're not disciples. They're by name referring to Jesus Christ. But Jesus says, No, to be my follower is not a momentary or occasional thing. It's a lifelong commitment 24 seven until the day you see me face to face. And Jesus calls us to permanently follow him without looking back. In Philippians 3 13 and 14, the apostle Paul said it like this. He said, Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Forgetting the things that are behind and pressing forward to that which is ahead. That's the Christian. And Jesus is calling people to follow him even though discipleship and he's preparing us is paved with difficulties. There is a cost paid by the one following the Lord. And one of those costs may include suffering. In Philippians 129, it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake, granted to us as believers. It has been granted to you. It's a blessing from God. It's a privilege to suffer for his sake. So Jesus is issuing a challenge for people to become followers, his disciples. And it makes it clear that there is definitely a cost that is involved in following him. And this willingness to pay such a price is an evidence that you desire to enter heaven. He says in verse 34, whoever desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross. Now, Jesus's men had already left everything and followed him. And in Luke chapter 18, verse 28, Peter said to him, we have left all and we had all we had to follow you. So we know that as we've read scripture, Peter, Andrew, James, John, they left their families. They left the fishing. Matthew left his job as a tax collector. The other men left everything to follow him. But within the crowd were unbelievers who had yet to place their faith in Jesus Christ. And so he's given an invitation, and his invitation is to anyone and to everyone. God wants us all to be saved. Jesus Christ gave up his life so that we might look to him, come to faith in him, and have a relationship with him and go to heaven. In the Old Testament book of Isaiah 45, verse 22, look to me, be saved all you ends of the earth. In 1 Timothy chapter 2, verse 4, Paul said God desires all men to be saved, to come to the knowledge of the truth. In 2 Peter 3, verse 9, the Lord is not slack concerning His promise as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. God's desire is to fill His house with His children. And the invitation isn't only for those who were there that day. The invitation is for all, even into the future. In Revelation 7, 9, and 10, John said, After these things I look, behold, a great multitude which no one could number of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne, before the lamb, clothed with white robes, palm branches in their hands, crying out with a loud voice saying, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne into the lamb, all people, all nations, all tribes, peoples and tongues. And I always say this, I'll say it quickly. The one thing that makes us united is not our ethnicity, our language, or our culture. The one thing that makes us united is that we believe in the one Lord who saved us, washed us with His blood and brought us into His family. That's what makes us family. Years ago I received, I said this on Wednesday night, I'll say it again. There's a national magazine that was, that called, the guy called me up years ago now. And he wanted to interview me for the magazine. And he said to me, Pastor Rosales, we wanted to contact you because, you know, we've heard of your ministry and I wanted to do an interview. And I said, fine, that's nice. So we asked me, and I'm going to use terms he used, he said, you know, what is the demographic of your church? And I said the demographic, you know, the demographic in church terms, the word demographic obviously speaks concern in the population makeup. What are the ethnicities, the culture? What is the language? It's a demographic. There are always demographic studies. There are people in here who are very familiar with that. Perhaps you do those studies yourself. They're called demographics. So he asked me, and I'm familiar with the term. So he said, what is your demographic? In other words, what is the population makeup? I said, what are the various individuals? What are their racial strain? Is that what you're asking me? He said, yeah, what are the races? I said, wow, I said, we have a large percentage of the church is Hispanic. I use that term because that's a term that he relates to. I'm not real big on the term. I think it's a general term. It's kind of an invented term for census. But I said, we would have a large Hispanic population. And the first thing he asks me is this. Oh, do you play Latino music? And I said, yeah, we have a mariachi band that comes in. And I started busting up. I said, what do you mean? Well, you know, we've got Hispanics. I said, we not only have Hispanics, we have everybody. I said, everybody is welcome. I said, you know, the only ones, there's not a single one who is not welcome to come because the body of Christ is not Hispanic. It's not black. It's not yellow. It's not red and it's not white. The body of Christ is made up of all people that come to faith in Jesus Christ. I said, I don't preach that. I don't preach that. I think that's divisive that doesn't unite. That is divisive. It does not unite. You know, and that's the way it is. I mean, that's just life. I don't understand this push. You've got to push this or you've got to push that. Oh, you want to get these people? You've got to play this music. Speak this way. You want to get hip-hop? You've got to learn those. Those, well, I can't do that. Oh man, like me. The only thing I remember is for Shizzle. And I don't even know what that means. Yeah, my Dizzle. I don't even know what that means. I'm still in far out. You know, I'm still there. So I don't get this. So, no, listen, guys. And I make this plea with this congregation, those who may be watching us. Just because I am, my generation, I'm going to use the term we used. No offense to anybody. We call ourselves Chicano. That's what I am. All right? I love who I am. I love being who I am because God made me who I am. But it isn't better than somebody else. It's just different. And you know what? It's really not that different. Because we all cry. We all hurt. We all need. We all get hungry. We all were human beings. You can't give me a law to make me love a person. You can't. You might want to shut my mouth up by giving laws that say you can't say this. And you might have a peer group of people who fold their arms and say, you shouldn't have said that. We're going to cancel you. You have that garbage. But no law has ever made me love somebody. Grace did. And grace comes through Jesus Christ. And so that's why the church has to be aware, has to remain aware that we are not white. We are not black. We are not brown. We are not yellow. We are not red. We are one in Jesus Christ. His Holy Spirit makes us one. And when we go before the throne of God and we raise our hands to Him, we all together will unite and praise to God because that came through the grace of God. And that's why we're there. And I know that that's not a popular. I know it's not a popular, but it's biblical. That's what it is. Love one another, Jesus said. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have love one for another. You can lock me up and keep me from doing certain things. You can force me by your laws to not say certain things. It's like that little boy that was causing problems and his mother told him, sit down. And he kept running around. She said, son, sit down. And he just kept standing and running around. So finally she sat him down. She said, don't get up. And he said, I may be sitting down, but in my heart, I'm standing up. That's human nature. So human nature has to be changed by the grace of God. So no law will make me love you, but God's grace did because we belong to each other. Look around. This is your family. We belong to each other. We need to understand that the invitation is to join with the disciples and follow him. Now verse 34, to follow him is built on a deep and sincere desire. If you desire, the word desire means to delight in. It means to resolve or purpose. It speaks of being fond of or having pleasure in something. So if anyone resolves to follow me, has pleasure in following me, Jesus said, let him follow after me. He makes it clear that following him is voluntary. It's a voluntary act of the will. He's not forcing people to follow him. He's inviting them to follow him. Again, we've already seen this in his early ministry in Mark 1.16-18. He walked by the Sea of Galilee. He saw Simon and Andrew, his brother, casting and adding to the sea. They were fishermen. Jesus said to them, follow me. I will make you become fishers of men. They immediately left their nets and followed him. Mark 2.14, he passed by. He saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax office. And he said to him, follow me. He arose and followed him. Though God desires all to come to him, not everybody sees the need to. Some don't see it as necessary. They enjoy life the way it is. Why would I need to follow him? It's like what it says in the book of Job chapter 21 verses 13-15. Now Job says they spend their years in prosperity, they go down to the grave in peace. Yet they say to God, leave us alone. We have no desire to know your ways. Who is the Almighty that we should serve Him? What would we gain by praying to Him? That's the unbeliever. What's in it for me? You know, Jesus is appealing to their will. He's not appealing to their emotions. You see, something may speak to us so powerfully, we respond emotionally. That's often the goal of many sermons, to move people emotionally. But Jesus refused to appeal to people's emotions alone. That's because he knew that their enthusiasm would die when it was tested. So he says, let him deny himself, take up his cross, follow me. You see, great leaders challenge people to great things. Churchill, Prime Minister of England during the World War II, Churchill said, all I can offer you is blood, tears, and sweat. He wasn't appealing to self-interest. He was calling for self-sacrifice. If you want to be great in the kingdom, we don't appeal by saying you're going to be rich. You're going to be famous. You're going to always be healthy. Now we say you're going to carry a cross. You're going to sacrifice. You're going to deny yourself. So to deny yourself speaks of no longer serving your own interests. It speaks of forgetting yourself. If a person will be a follower of Jesus, they will say no to their own desires, and they will say yes to him. They will say no to all self-seeking and all self-will, and they will say yes to Jesus Christ. It's like what it says in Psalm 85, verse 8, I will hear what God the Lord will speak. So to deny yourself is to put Jesus first and seek to do His will in everything. Psalm 27, verse 8, when you said, seek my face, my heart said to you, your face, Lord, I will seek. So He says to those listening, pick up your cross. Today a cross is an article of jewelry. At that time it was an instrument of death. It's an instrument of torture and agony. It's an instrument of shame. So the crowd immediately picked your man, a cross on a death march to follow Jesus as costly all who follow Him experience hardship. Paul made it clear that suffering is part of the cost. In Acts 14, 22, Paul said, we must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God. It's been said that a faith that costs nothing is worth nothing. And so he says in verse 34, follow me, follow Jesus. Follow up the direction of your life to me, he's saying. Instead of plotting your own course, follow my lead. And as my follower, you will hear my voice. You'll hear it by my word. You'll hear it through prayer. Follow me. In John 10, 27, he said, my sheep, hear my voice. I know them. They follow me. So truly being a disciple is evidence the way that we live. In 1 John 2, 6, it says, the one who says he abides in Him will have to walk in the same manner as he walked. He says in verse 35, whoever desires to save his life will lose it. If you desire to live in eternity, you have to die now. Those who are unwilling to surrender to Jesus are losing eternal life with Him. And then he asked this question and we'll roll to a conclusion. He asked a very basic question. He says in verse 36, what will it profit a man who finds the whole world loses his own soul? What will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him, the son of man also will be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his father, the holy angels. What would you give in exchange for your soul? People probably wouldn't say this with their mouth but their actions. What would I give in exchange for my soul? I'd give anything to have that car. I'd give anything to have that house. I'd give up anything to have that job. I'd give up anything to have that woman or that man. You're exchanging your soul for that which perishes with the using. Again, and I'll close with a couple of thoughts. The key in life, learn it when you're young. You will learn it one day as you grow older, God willing. If you're young now, the key to enjoying life is never material. Man's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses. Man's life doesn't consist, it's not made up of that. That's not the fabric of it. That's not what makes it what it is. It'll always be relationship. It will always be relationship. Always. You're a man, you get married. You live a lifetime with that woman. And every day you learn new things and after 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, you've moved on. There's still something special and sweet about learning new things about that person. Before you know it, you realize that when you leave somewhere, you come home. It's not the location that you're returning to. It's the person that you're returning to. That's what's home. I don't come home to a house. I come home to my wife and I walk into the door and she comes and hugs me and kisses me and we hold each other. I missed you, baby. I didn't miss the TV set. I didn't miss the couch. I missed the person. I missed her. When I haven't seen my children and I see them, I don't miss the things they do. I miss them as people. And when I see my grandchildren and they come up and hold me and I pop, I love you. What's better than that? What's better than that? It's relationship. They don't care what kind of car you drive. They don't care about the house you live in. They don't care about the work you do. They care about you. What will a man give in exchange for his soul? What would you give? Oh, one of these days we're going to go and we're going to do and we're going to have. And that day never comes because the eyes of men are never satisfied. How much is enough? A little bit more? A little bit more? When I have that, when I have that and my future, then the woman dies and you're by yourself. And you start thinking, I gave up her for this. Who do I have to enjoy it with now? Who do I have? What would a man give in exchange for his soul? They sell their soul very, very cheaply. Very cheaply. Now you receive Christ and He gives you everything because in Christ you have everything. That's how it works but a lot of people don't understand that. He says this. He says, whoever, verse 38, is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him, the Son of Man will also be ashamed when it comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels. This is startling. He's saying, I am the ultimate judge and I'm going to go to heaven and return with the angels in the glory of God. And I'm going to judge you. I mean, what an amazing thing for him to say to these people who have stopped as he's saying this and he's saying in the final judgment if you reject me, you will not enter into the kingdom of God. In Matthew 10.33, everyone who denies me here on earth, Jesus said, I will also deny before my Father in heaven. Isaiah 1.28, rebels and sinners will together be shattered and those who forsake the Lord will perish. Strong words to be speaking to the people. Now yourself, pick up the cross. Follow me. If you do not, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Strong words but true. And that's why it is so important that we do not reject him because in the end he will reject us. That's why we open our hearts and say, God be merciful to me. I am a sinner and I will follow you because you are worth following. You are worth following. You will wash my sins, cleanse me by your spirit will indwell me and then you write my name in your book of life and one of these days I will see you face to face and at that time I will see that there are pleasures at your right hand forevermore and I will say it was worth it. I will say it was worth it. It was worth it. For eternity I am with you. I can't imagine anything better than that. Our Father we bless you and we thank you.