"What's Your Slogan?"
Not A Fan Series- 3/10/13
1 Corinthians 15:31-34; Luke 9:23

Introduction: Most businesses, when they first get started, try to come up with a slogan. The slogan they want is one that is memorable, and that draws people to their business. The right slogan can not only bring the company name to the customers mind, but also create a desire for the product. Let me see how you do with some company slogans. I’ll say the slogan, and you guess the company…

            Melts in your mouth, not in your hand….M&M’s

It’s everywhere you want to be….Visa

            The ultimate driving machine….BMW

Just do it…..Nike

            It’s keeps going, and going, and going….Energizer

You’re in good hands with….Allstate

            I think you did pretty well, which means that the companies have done a good job of choosing their slogan. These companies have worked hard to pick the right slogan that will be appealing to attract as many people as possible.

            Along with their slogan, companies also create a symbol that represents the company. Many of these symbols are as recognizable as their slogan. A while back my daughter got a game on her Itouch that had you guess the symbol of each company. I was surprised how many I knew off the top of my head!

I.                   Symbol of Humiliation- (Luke 9:23; Philippians 2:5-8)

With this in mind, let us think for a moment what might be the slogan and

symbol for followers of Christ. We actually find it in the verse we have been studying over the last few weeks: Luke 9:23- “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” The slogan for followers of Christ could be stated in these three words: Come and Die.

            Now I know that death is not an attractive subject. For the most part, we don’t even like the word death. It is a sad word. It is a word that brings grief and heartache. It is a word that stirs up our loved ones who are no longer with us. It might even bring about feelings of loneliness.

Now, while that might not be the most attractive slogan, it does get your attention! It’s not exactly the kind of slogan that draws people in, but it is one that speaks to the root of being a follower of Christ. In this slogan, we are not hidden in any way of what God expects and asks of us!

            So if the slogan is come and die, what might the symbol for followers of Christ be? It is the Cross. The cross, which is an instrument of torture and death. Now we might wonder, why didn’t Jesus go with a dove, a symbol of peace? What about a shepherd’s staff? It is a symbol of protection. Or a rainbow? It represents hope.

            Jesus chooses a cross. A cross was a symbol of humiliation. Crucifixion required four soldiers and a centurion to oversee. Crucifixion was a way to publicly humiliate the person being crucified. When someone was crucified, the authorities were making a public statement that the person had no power and no standing.

            This is very true of Jesus’ crucifixion. The soldiers mocked Jesus, spit on Jesus and removed all His clothes. They purposely humiliated Him. Here is Jesus, the Creator, Savior, and the King of Kings, allowing Himself to be humiliated. Why? Because Jesus was making Himself nothing so that we could be made something! If we are going to follow Jesus, then we must humbly take up a cross and make ourselves nothing.

            We are told this very clearly by the Apostle Paul, when he says in Philippians 2:5-8, “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: ⁶ Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; ⁷ rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. ⁸ And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!”

II.                Symbol of Suffering- (Luke 6:22; 2 Timothy 3:12; Philippians 1:29)

The cross was also a symbol of suffering. Before crucifying a criminal, it was

common for the Romans to beat them the way they did Jesus. It is called a “scourging.” For this scourging, the man was stripped of his clothing, and his hands were tied to a post. This would stretch out the flesh on the body. The number of lashes administered were not important, rather, they would beat a person just to the edge of death.

      After this beating, the cross was put on their back and they were expected to

carry this 125 pound beam to the place of crucifixion. It’s no wonder Jesus had a difficult time carrying the cross in his beaten and exhausted state! Jesus stumbled down the narrow roads of the Via Dolarosa (or the Way of Suffering)…. Taking up your cross and following Jesus can and will bring pain and suffering.

      There is no comfortable way to carry a cross, and it wasn’t meant to be easy.

This was to add to the humiliation and suffering of the one who was to be crucified. Likewise, there is no easy way to be a true follower of Jesus Christ. Many think that if there is suffering in their lives, it is because they are not following Jesus. However, the opposite is true, when we are truly and faithfully following Jesus, Satan will bring many trials and tribulations into our lives. Suffering can actually be evidence that you are following Jesus.

      When people say “yes” to following Jesus, they are agreeing to carry a cross;

a cross that at times will be painful. There are a number of scriptures that talk about this cost: Jesus says in the Beatitudes, in Luke 6:22- “Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.”

      2 Timothy 3:12- “Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be

persecuted.” Notice it doesn’t say might be, but will be. Philippians 1:29- “For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him.”

      So here is an important question: “Are we really carrying the cross if there is

no suffering and sacrifice?” Carrying the cross of Christ will cost us. It will cost us when we stand up for what is right. It will cost us when we make decisions based on what God would have us to do, rather than what the world would tell us to do. It will cost us when we choose to do the right thing, not the comfortable thing! 

     III.             Symbol of Death-

Ultimately the cross was a symbol of death. When Jesus got to Golgotha, the

place of the skull, the soldiers took the beam He was carrying and nailed Him to it. After Jesus’ death, a spear was thrust into His side to confirm His death…. Jesus invites followers to die to themselves. We are to die to our own desires, pursuits, and plans. When we become followers of Jesus, that is the end of us, as Jesus invites us to die.

            Jesus makes it clear that following Him means taking up your cross and dying to yourself. This is what a follower is committing to. This is not easy to hear, and even harder to carry out. This is why so many say they are followers, but aren’t true followers, because they don’t die to themselves. It is too difficult to give up the comfy life they know.

            Story: There is a story of a man whose daughter was about to be married to an atheist. This greatly concerned the father, and so he went to his minister and asked the minister if he would meet with this man’s future son-in-law. The minister agreed and promptly set up an appointment. This surprised the minister some that the young man would meet with him, but he was glad to have the opportunity to talk to him about Jesus. The minister had an amazing conversation with the young man, and by the end of the lunch the man confessed his sins and prayed to accept Jesus. They then went their separate ways. A few weeks went by when the minister got a call from the father-in-law. The father-in-law was upset because he felt his son-in-law had now gone too far in his faith. The young man was taking seriously the area of tithing, and the father-in-law felt he was giving too much of his money away to God!  In fact the father-in-law had told the young man: “I’m really glad you’ve become a Christian, but Jesus never wanted you to become a fanatic.”

            Yet, it was the father-in-law who had it all wrong. Jesus does want us to take up our cross and give ourselves totally to Him! In fact, we see how Jesus’ followers gave themselves up to death for Jesus. Matthew was killed by a sword in Ethiopia. Mark died in Alexandria, Egypt, after being dragged by horses through the streets until he was dead. Luke was hanged in Greece. Peter was crucified upside down. Thomas was stabbed with a spear in India during a missionary trip… And on and on it went. Jesus’ disciples, dying for their faith.

            A decision to follow Jesus is a decision to DIE to yourself.

IV.              Take up your cross- (James 3:1)

Now much of what I am saying goes against 21^st century American Christianity.

What I’m talking about takes away the thinking that you can be a Christian and live a life of comfort. Most people work hard to make their lives as comfortable as possible. They seek to have the nicest of houses, cars, and accessories. People are by nature comfort seekers, not cross bearers. And this is where the challenge comes!

            The problem with thinking that we have to be comfortable in life, is that anytime we face discomfort, we begin to question God. God, why are you allowing this to happen to me? We might not think that God is holding up His end of the bargain, forgetting that God never promised for things to be easy and neat.

            Illustration- There was an amazing story back in 2002 about a pharmacist named Robert Courtney. He was convicted of diluting the medication of cancer patients in order to make a profit. He diluted the medicine of over 4200 patients, at least 17 of which died. He actually made about 19 million dollars from the fraud. Here is a man who had been entrusted with the responsibility for handing out lifesaving medication, but instead he diluted it to the point where it couldn’t help people!

            James 3:1 tells us, “Let not many of you become teachers my brethren, knowing that as such we shall incur a stricter judgment.” Why is there a stricter judgment to those who teach the word of God? Because God expects that we will teach what His word says, not what we want it to say. God does not want us to dilute the message. God wants us to preach the truth and power of His word! When we dilute the word of God, we make it so that it doesn’t give any help at all. It actually causes people to be fans, and not followers.

            In the book Mere Christianity, by C. S. Lewis, Lewis puts it this way:

“Christ says, ‘Give me all. I don’t want so much of your time so much of your money and so much of your work. I want you. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there. I want to have the whole tree down. I don’t want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out.’”

            The slogan “Die Daily,” and the symbol of the cross. That is the message we are to hear from Jesus. That is the message we are to wrestle with until we can accept it and follow it. Think about this, once a person dies, they are no longer concerned with what clothes they are wearing, or how much money they have. Death is the ultimate surrender. When you are dead you are no longer concerned with your life.

V.                 I die daily- (John 10:18; 1 Corinthians 15:31; Luke 9:24)

a.      Choosing Death- When Jesus calls us to follow Him, He says, “Take

up your cross…” The word “take” is telling us that we are called to make a choice. We are called to choose to die. Now that might sound odd because we don’t normally think of death as something we would choose. Death usually happens against our will. It is in our will to fight to stay alive. This is the “survival instinct” that we have in us. When our lives are threatened, self-preservation can drive us to extreme measures. So as we think about the slogan “Come and Die,” and we think about the cross, we must understand that they are not only counter-cultural, but counter-intuitive. They go against our very survival instinct.

            When I was in my late teens there was a time when I was playing softball, golf, and basketball almost every week. I was very active. I loved sports. I loved to compete. I loved to participate in those things that challenged me physically. If I tried to do all three of those each week now I think I would not be able to move after the first week!

            We would never choose to make ourselves less. We want to be the best. We want to be capable of doing things as well or better than others. However, Jesus asks us to choose to take up our cross. It is not forced on us, but rather asked of us. We choose willingly as Christ did. In John 10:18 Jesus tells us, “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.” As Jesus chose to die for us, so we must choose to die to ourselves for Jesus.

b.      Daily- Not only are we called to take up our cross, but we called to do

this DAILY. This word daily is very important. It is a word that reminds us that we don’t just make this choice to die to ourselves once, but each and every day. Every day we are challenged with the things of the world drawing us away from God. Every day we are fighting against our sinful and selfish nature. Every day we must make the choice to die or not.

            In 1 Corinthians 15:31 the apostle Paul says: “I die daily.”

That’s the hardest part of carrying your cross and dying to yourself. It is to be done daily. Each morning we need to ask God for His grace, and strength, and wisdom so that we might be able to take up our cross and die. That is the only way we will follow Him every day. That is the only way we can make this tough choice.

            But there is good news in the dying. In Luke 9:23 we are told to take up our cross and die to ourselves daily. But let’s listen to what Jesus has to say in Luke 9:24: “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.” The good news is that when we die to ourselves, we actually discover our true selves. In dying, we find life. When we die to our sinful ways, we are led to become the person we were meant to be if sin had not taken us away from God. Dying to yourself doesn’t make sense unless you understand that dying is the secret to living.

             

Conclusion: The hymn we will sing in a minute , I Am Thine, O Lord, talks about the cross of Christ. The refrain says this: “Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to the cross where thou hast died. Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to thy precious, bleeding side.” The cross doesn’t represent defeat, but victory. The cross is there to bring guilt, but to be an image of God’s grace. The cross shouldn’t condemn, but bring you freedom from your sin which condemns you. Instead of thinking of the cross as something that represents pain and suffering, look at it as an image of healing and hope! The cross isn’t about death as much as it is a symbol of that which brings life. The cross may not be attractive, but to the follower of Christ it is beautiful.

            Taking up a cross and dying to myself sounds bad. It sounds hard. It seems unattractive. Such a decision could very well make us miserable. However, I propose to you that when we die to ourselves and completely surrender to Jesus, there is a surprising result. In this dying we discover true life. As we give up our lives, we are given the life we are so desperately seeking after. Most people are not that happy in life because they are living a life they were not meant to live. SO, decide today to take up your cross, die to yourself and receive the fullness of the life God Himself gives to us. Amen.