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 been 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 our 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 committing 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 it to heaven; you have to be hol,y 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 ask 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 of 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. You should 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 wavered when God asked Him to surrender Isaac, 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 asks 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 foolish, because what God is 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 a 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 it’s 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 does the Crosshave 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 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 CRUCIFIED

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 crucifixion on the cross. Cruxifixion of you, you to the cross. In other words, you must get to that stage where you no longer glory in anything except the cross. Do not glory in your wisdom because a Professor can become a madman. 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 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? So they are saying listen, do not rejoice over children at all.

If you don’t sit down today and take sum of everything you have, make up your mind that you are ready to crucify everything; you are not yet a disciple. If you are not willing to say to the LORD. If you want the total sum of everything I have today, you can have it, then you are not a friend of the cross.

THE OLD MAN

The world looks for certain things in certain people before they will say the person is successful. For example, the world will determine how successful you are by the dress you wear, the kind of car you ride in, and the number of houses you possess, and there was a time when the number of wives you had determined how wealthy you were. All these things the Bible sum up as our “old man”. You must stop thinking the way the world thinks. Your values must be different from the values of the world.

Romans 6:6 says that:

“And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts”

This is a very serious one. We understand crucifying the lusts, but crucifying affections too? Because affection is not a bad thing, it is alright to love your wife. It is alright to love your children, but if you want to be a follower of Jesus Christ, if you want to be a solid disciple, you have to crucify your affections too. What does this mean? It means that if the Almighty God asks for your son, that son that you love, if you have not crucified your affections, then it will be difficult to say, “Yes Lord”. You will remember what God said to Abraham,

“Take thy son, thy only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest, go and offer him for a sacrifice”

THE SECRET OF PEACE

The secret of peace for any true disciple is to have nothing in this world, absolutely nothing. Do not regard anything as your own. Be it wife or children or husband, do not even to talk of material things because the moment the devil knows that there is nothing you hold there other than jesus, it will be difficult for him to attack you. Let him know the children are not your children. They belong to God. You have surrendered your wife. Your business is not yours. If it prospers, glory be to God. If it does not, let the managing director or the chairman himself take care. If you do not get to that stage, you are going to have problems.

Paul said in Galatians 2:20;

“I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live…”

What does this tell us? The only fellow who will not care what happen to my wife or children or material possesions, is only the one who is dead, because if you are alive and you are still living in the flesh, how can you say you don’t care about what happens to your wife and to your children. This is why Paul said,

“Nevertheless, I live…”

In other words, unless you die, you don’t even begin to live, because until you die, there can be no resurrection. Until you are crucified in Christ, you cannot even begin to discuss resurrection.

So we need to think about this very seriously. We need to remember that as disciples of Jesus Christ, we are to carry our cross daily because any moment, the need for total cruxifision may arise.

So we need to think about this very seriously. We need to remember what as disciples of Jesus Christ, we are to carry our cross because any moment, the need for total cruxifison may arise.

God may separate you and everything you have in a moment, which is why it will be advisable that you crucify yourself right now. Make up your mind that from now on, I am for Christ and Christ alone. Whatever comes does not matter. If you do not decide now , when you have to decide, it might be painful.

PRAYER

Talk to the Lord for a few minutes and ask Him. Lord, lay me on the Cross and finish a total cruxifision so that when the time comes, I might live with You. Talk to Him now.

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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