The Disciple and The Cruxifixion Of Christ. RCCG SOD Year 10

What is the relationship between the disciple of Jesus Christ and his crucifixion?

In Matthew 10:38-39, The LORD said, And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

And the Lord repeated this in Matthew 16:24-25 , “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

What is the Lord saying here? He is saying that if you want to be a disciple of Jesus Christ,

You must deny yourself.
You must pick up your cross.
You must follow him.

Let us look at a story in Mark 10:17-22. It was the story of a young rich man who came to Jesus, and wanted to know what to do to make it to heaven. . The LORD told him what is expected of him – Loving God and your neighbour. He said he had being doing all these since his youth.

The Bible went on to say in verse 21,

“Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, one thing you lackest, go thy way, sell whatsoever you hast, and give to the poor, and thou shall have treasure in heavens, and come, take up thy cross , and follow me.

The Bible says this fellow went away sorrowful because he had great possessions. He was also sorrowful because Jesus said unto him, “You have to sell what you have, give to the poor and come and follow Me, carrying your cross. “

We all know that we must be born again to make it to heaven and thank God for the salvation of your souls. We all know we must live a life of holiness, that we must have no spot, no wrinkle and I believe that as a Year 10 Disciple, you have reached that level. I know none of you will ever dream of commiting adultery or lying, but the Lord is now saying that it takes a little more than this to make it to heaven. This is why He said it is going to be difficult for the rich man to make is to heaven, you have to be holy and then you have to let go of worldly possessions.

You will find out that it is the poor who find it very easy to pay Tithes. For example, paying 10 naira out of an income of 100 naira is not a problem but paying 100,000 naira out of an income of 1,000,000 naira is a burden to the rich. The poor never asks how he is going to pay the Tithes , whether on the gross or on the net incomes. It is the rich who ask such questions.

The Lord ask somebody now to surrender 50% of what he has to him. It is the poor who would be ready to give because they do not have much. Maybe the fellow has only one bicycle. He will say, “God , I don’t know how we are going to share it. If you want it all, you can have it. ‘But the one who had twenty houses will say, Yes Lord, I am ready to give You ten houses, but I hope You know, God, that houses are houses. You can have the one in Ifewara (the village) and the one in Erijiyan (Another village) but don’t think of the one in Victoria Island (the city) and don’t think of the one in America.

The rich have a problem because material wealth blocks their sight to God. But what you need to know is what Jesus says here. He says if you try to keep your life, you will lose it. In other words , if there is anything you do not surrender to God, you are going to lose it anyway. It is better for you to give it to Him, so that He can bless you rather than for Satan to take it away from you and curse you in addition.

You will remember how long it took Abraham before Isaac came but when God said to Him,

“I want your only son, Isaac…

Abraham remembered that he started from zero anyway and so anything he had, came from God and if God wanted it, he could have it. If Abraham had waivered when God asked Him to surrender Isaac, that that would have been the end of the story concerning Abraham. And you too may ask, “When is God likely to ask me to surrender anything?”

According to Luke 9:23-36. He ask you to carry your cross daily. And what does this mean? It means any moment from now, He may ask you to surrender all you have. I know this may sound to be foolish, because what God is actually saying now is that you can have anything , keep on enjoying it but tomorrow, I can ask for everything. You may say why am I building houses if He can ask for all of them tomorrow?

Why am I buying cars if he can require everything tomorrow? Why am i piling money up in the bank when tomorrow He can say, “I want 100%?”

The Bible tells us in 1 Cor. 1:17-18 that the preaching of Christ is foolishness to them that perish.

Today, what we want to hear is that we are King’s kids. We are,no doubt about that, but the King’s kids must be ready to surrender everything that he is to the King. Your father is not a King because you are prince. If is the other way round, and if your Father provides you with all kinds of treasures , you can lose it like Vashti lost her own, and became a nobody or God can take you like Esther, from a slave , and make you a Queen, and give you everything, provided you are aware that tomorrow, you might be asked to risk not even all that you have, but your very life too. Why do you need to hold on to something you cannot keep anyway, when you know that its the Almighty God who can make sure you keep whatever you retain?

THE CROSS OF CHRIST

So When we talk about the Cross of Christ, it is not something for decoration as some people wear it. When we ask you to come to the foot of the Cross, you are to come with humility to the cross, the blood of Jesus will cleanse you from your sins. We know you will not go back the way you came.

THE ENEMY OF THE CROSS

The Bible says the cross has many enemies. Why has the Cross so many enemies?

Philippians 3:17-18 , the Bible says, “Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an example. FOr many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell even weeping, that they are the enemy of the cross of Christ.

Bible made it clear that for some people, the Cross is their enemy because their god is their belly, their glory is in their shame because they mind earthly things. You need to note one thing here. There are very few enemies of Christ, but there are many enemies of the Cross. You too have to be careful because if you are not , you can become an enemy of the Cross, because the Cross can take everything you have away from you.

SELF MUST BE CRUXIFIED

Paul said in Galatians 6:14 that:

“But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is cruxified unto me, and I unto the world”.

There must be a total cruxifixion on the cross. Cruxifixion of you you to the cross . In other words, you must get to that stage hwere you no longer glory in anything except the cross. Do not glory in your wisdom because a Professor can become a mad man. DO not glory in your might because there is no might except that of God. And believe me honestly, if you are wealthy, do not glory in your wealth because the Bible tells us clearly that money can grow wings. It can fly away at any time. DO not glory in your children. The elders have a saying that nobody should rejoice over his children because it is the only one who had been buried by children that really has children, which means the only time you can rejoice over your children is when you are dead. And then how can the dead rejoice? Spo they are saying listen , do not rejoice over children at all.

Action Point

PS: I know you might agree with some of the points that I have raised in this article. You might not agree with some of the issues raised. Let me know your views about the topic discussed. We would appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.

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