[0:00] Turn with me to the Gospel of Luke chapter 9. We'll be looking at verse 18 to verse 36.! So Luke chapter 9, starting at verse 18.
[0:13] Now may it happen that as he was praying alone, the disciples were with him. And he asked them, Who do the crowds say that I am?
[0:25] And they answered, John the Baptist. But others say Elijah, and others that one of the prophets of old has risen. Then he said to them, But who do you say that I am?
[0:40] And Peter answered, The Christ of God. And he strictly charged and commanded them to tell this to no one, saying, The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed, and on the third day be raised.
[1:01] And he said to all, If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
[1:13] For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?
[1:28] For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
[1:42] But I tell you the truth, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.
[1:54] Now about eight days after these sayings, he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered and his clothing became dazzling white.
[2:11] And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.
[2:22] Now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep. But when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him.
[2:35] And as the men were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, Master, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.
[2:52] Not knowing what he said. As he was saying these things, a cloud overcame them or a cloud came and overshadowed them. And they were afraid as they entered the cloud.
[3:06] And a voice came out of the cloud saying, This is my son, my chosen one. Listen to him. And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone.
[3:17] And they kept silent and told no one in those days anything of what they had seen. This is the word of God.
[3:28] Thanks be to God. Sometimes I think it's easy for us to look at things that are going on in our culture today and forget what history teaches us about things, how to interpret what's going on in the world.
[3:51] Because the Christian faith has always been costly. From the first century to our own, as you see on every headline on news this week.
[4:06] Those who confessed Jesus as Lord discovered that following him demands life itself. Yet from their dying lips, we don't hear despair, but a vision of glory that's beyond the grave.
[4:27] We need a history lesson this morning. Stephen, the first martyr, as stones were crushing his body in Acts 7, lifted his eyes and cried, Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.
[4:48] Polycarp. He was the aged, martyred bishop of Smyrna. When pressed to deny Christ, he declared, Eighty in six years have I served him, and he has done me no wrong.
[5:04] How then can I blaspheme my king who saved me? And Polycarp welcomes the flames with confidence of the life to come.
[5:19] Perpetua, a woman, martyred. She was imprisoned in Carthage. And she told fellow believers around her, before the beast came for her, Stand fast in faith.
[5:37] And love one another. Do not let our sufferings become a stumbling block for you. And she looked beyond death to that heavenly kingdom where she entered.
[5:51] Maybe William Tyndale, who was martyred, strangled and burned for translating Scripture into English.
[6:03] He prayed with his final breath, Lord, open the King of England's eyes. And his death scattered seed that brought the Word of God to countless souls, even ours today.
[6:17] John Huss, he was condemned at the stake for preaching Christ, and he declared, You may roast this goose, but in a century a swan shall rise that you will not silence.
[6:36] He fixed his eyes on the triumph of God's truth for his church. Many more recently, in past centuries, Jim Elliot, martyred at the age of 28 in Ecuador, leaving a wife widowed, wrote in his journal, He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.
[7:06] His perspective of life was fixed upon nothing that he had in this life, only in the life to come. These words form this magnificent chorus for us, and I think it's important for us to understand history right now.
[7:30] Paul wrote in Romans 8, verse 18, He said, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
[7:46] Have you grappled with that cost? You've been watching the news, the cost is on every single news headline that says Charlie Kirk.
[8:00] Every single news headline. Who suffered the greatest cost, a cost that his family consented to.
[8:11] They knew the danger. Before his death, he was told by an advisor that he is going to be killed if he continues.
[8:23] And still he sat in front of thousands of students in Utah and was willing to suffer the cost. But his family never would have anticipated it to happen at 31 years old.
[8:40] Never. Have you grappled with the cost? Thinking of his wife who lost her husband, the children who lost their father.
[8:51] Church, this isn't about politics, of conservative activism. It's not about politics. It's about truth versus lies.
[9:03] It's always been about truth versus lies all throughout history. No matter what side of the aisle you're on. Evil never agrees to disagree.
[9:15] It only silences. That is a history lesson for us. As Jesus said, the world loves the darkness more than it loves the light.
[9:28] Church, we must grapple with the cost and ask ourselves, what does it truly mean to follow Jesus when the cross is not optional, but it's required?
[9:43] Are we ready to confess him when it will cost us everything? Will we cling to his promise of glory when the world strips away life, possessions, and pride?
[10:01] The passage before us presses this reality home in our current cultural moments. The Lord had for us, providentially, as I sat in my study, planning out the series, that we would cover this passage during this cultural moment.
[10:22] I don't think it's any coincidence. Not to glorify me in my study. I'm an idiot, okay? It is all God. All right? All God.
[10:33] And he has this for us today. For in these verses, Christ himself calls his disciples to a cross-shaped life while offering them a glimpse of the glory to come that every martyr anticipated.
[10:52] And by the end of our time today, we will better understand what every martyr understood of the days past, even Charlie understood long before his death, is that the path of blood is the path of glory.
[11:11] You'll see that main point in the passage today, that the path of blood is the path of glory. And so to reinforce this, we'll break this down into three separate points.
[11:25] And I usually don't reveal my whole hand, but I think that it will help and be beneficial to us hearing today that the first point builds on the second point and builds on the third point.
[11:40] So we're kind of systematically building up to emphasize that main point. And so the first point is confessing Christ means embracing his cross.
[11:52] Second point, similar to it, but building, carrying the cross means denying ourselves. And denying ourselves means fixing our eyes on his glory.
[12:05] The path of blood is the path of glory. Sermon title today is The Cost of the Crown. And I'd like to pray as we enter into this text in a providential moment that God wants to speak to Steel Valley Church today.
[12:24] Let's pray. Lord, we come to you broken, carrying a light in darkness, not knowing when our days are numbered and when that number will lapse.
[12:46] But we know that you do. So let us heed this moment in our history, our personal history, to know that if we're not promised tomorrow, we need to listen to you today, to turn to you.
[13:06] We pray that you open all of our ears, our hearts, our minds the reality that the cost of the crown is very great.
[13:19] Praise in Jesus' name. Amen. I got a double whammy this week. Not only was this the worst week of a while, but I'm also sick.
[13:34] it's kind of just, the Lord's like, I'm going to humble you today. So he has humbled me greatly today in weakness. And so the first point, kind of building these building blocks, we see the first point, confessing Christ means embracing his cross.
[13:53] And we see that from verse 18 leading all the way to verse 22. And so, who we believe Jesus is determines everything.
[14:05] Who we believe Jesus is determines everything. It decides whether we cling to him in suffering or abandon him for comfort, self-preservation.
[14:19] Luke has been pressing this question since verse 9 of chapter 9. Who is Jesus? That was last week. Herod wondered, the crowd speculated, but now Jesus puts it directly to his disciples.
[14:38] He says, who do you say that I am? This question has echoed throughout history as well, hasn't it? Islam calls him a prophet.
[14:50] Liberal theology calls him a myth. Many today call him a moral teacher. But Jesus will not allow half-truths.
[15:04] Right? He wasn't just a prophet. He wasn't just a moral teacher. He had morals. He wasn't just a story of old.
[15:16] He was real in history. And as C.S. Lewis wrote, I love it, he says, Jesus is either a lunatic, a liar, or Lord.
[15:30] A lunatic, a liar, or Lord. What we believe about Jesus determines everything. Imagine Peter in this moment and Jesus turns to him and the question, who do you say that I am?
[15:49] If you know Peter, you're kind of like, already like, oh boy. Peter's going to do it again. The Lord sanctified Peter greatly into the apostle we know.
[16:03] Imagine him in this moment, his mind fixed on the just recent exorcisms, the miracles, the casting out of demons, the stilling of seas, the multiplication of bread, all within Peter's mind.
[16:25] And even more than that, his heart burning with the prophecies that he was brought up in, that said that were about the son of David who would reign forever in 2 Samuel 7, or about the servant anointed with the spirit of Isaiah 42 or 61, or about the shepherd king who would feed his flock of Ezekiel 34, or the prophet greater than Moses of Deuteronomy 18.
[16:57] Imagine Peter being asked this critical question. He does it good in this verse.
[17:10] He says with holy conviction, he declares, you are the Christ of God, anointed Messiah of God.
[17:23] You are the hope of 2 Samuel, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Deuteronomy. All about him.
[17:36] And here we discover that when we confess Jesus, it's not merely admiration or even proximity with him. You know about Jesus and actually not know Jesus.
[17:49] But a true confession embraces him as Christ, the Christ of God, the Messiah, Lord, and Savior. That is a true confession.
[18:03] And further in verse 22, Jesus makes it clear that to confess Jesus is to embrace his cross. That like Jesus is the model of the ultimate sacrifice in verse 22.
[18:18] He foreshadows to his impending death. You see, this confession has consequences then, doesn't it? That if Jesus is the model of laying it all down for his disciples, it has consequences.
[18:39] You would find it weird, why does he tell the disciples to hold their tongue? Here. Why does he tell them not to speak? Right? Go tell it on a mountain? What's he talking about?
[18:53] The consequences of that confession are so critically woven into the redemptive plan of God. To say it before the mission is about to be accomplished or to say it too late would be to take things in our own hands.
[19:08] He says to trust him that is the truth but not yet. There is much to be accomplished. Not only does the confession have consequences but to embrace his cross means that we will be required to carry our own.
[19:28] We'll get into that in verse 23 but I think we need to stop for a minute and think about this very realistically in our lives that our confession of Jesus Christ has consequences.
[19:49] Great consequences. Confession is personal. Personal. We are all going to have to answer for ourselves.
[20:02] Jesus didn't stop at who do the crowd say I am but who do you say I am? A question that will resonate in our future to come as we all will give an account to God the answer to that question.
[20:21] So your parents kids under the age of 11 middle school high school your parents your spouse pastors!
[20:33] We can't answer this for you! My kids I can't answer that for them! Any other pastor's kids your pastor dad who was great or horrible can't answer it for you!
[20:46] It is personal as consequences! Have you confessed him or sort of just regurgitated what mom and dad have taught you?
[20:57] Or kind of talk the talk that the pastor keeps reinforcing in our lives? Or maybe what your spouse is doing. Spouse prays every day so you kind of just tag along but not knowing Jesus.
[21:15] The confession is not only personal but it's also costly church. You cannot separate Christ from his cross. Without the cross there is no Christ.
[21:27] to call him Lord means embracing his suffering making that personal. Following a crucified Messiah will never be comfortable.
[21:41] It may never be popular as well. Not only that not only is it personal and costly but it's also whole it's defined it's complete that you cannot accept Jesus Christ and ignore different parts about Jesus Christ.
[22:05] You either wholly accept him or wholly reject him. The crowds called him a prophet they called him a teacher they called him great example all half truths that fall short of who he actually really is of which Peter attests to.
[22:24] And today many do the same. Did you not know? Many do the same today. They reduce Jesus to some social justice warrior who gets us empathizes right or to a symbol of tolerance Jesus is love but just love people which actually is translated in Christianese tolerate other people just let them do what they do and do what you do.
[22:56] Or to a moral coach who blesses our agendas. We got some great plans in our lives we just give it to the Lord and say let it be done let me get that house.
[23:09] But if we admire his compassion and reject his call to repentance and taking hold of his bloody cross we are confessing a Christ of our own making it's an illusion it's an imaginary savior not the Christ that Peter confesses here so have you embraced the whole Christ crucified risen savior or only the parts of it that kind of suit you not only is confession personal costly and whole also enduring confession is enduring you can cannot only confess him when it's safe this is a reality Peter confessed boldly but later denied him when the fire burned hot when the stakes were high and you can feel the heat that if he confesses
[24:23] Christ that could be the end will you confess Jesus when it costs your reputation costs your job costs your friendships or as Charlie Kirk can attest costs your life if you're not in Christ today you're in good company because we are all sinners in need of grace we don't gather here because we got it all together that's nonsense you knew me you would know I ain't got it all together but I know the one who does and if you're not in Christ today the cost of following Christ now pales into comparison than the cost of denying him later deal with it now who do you say that Jesus is confess him and the promise of salvation is that by your confession and believing in him and trusting in
[25:27] Jesus as your savior your lord your sins will be forgiven it was paid for at the cross the legal record is wiped clean and you're free from the bondage of sin the penalty that Jesus bore come to Jesus today we see in the second point that not only did not only is confessing Christ means embracing his cross but carrying the cross means denying ourselves and so we see this from verse 23 through 27 and so a crucified messiah a crucified messiah can only have crucified followers you can't have one without the other a crucified messiah can only have crucified followers and so
[26:34] Jesus turns to all of them he says he makes a command and then a couple implications of that following that in verse 23 he gives the command he says if anyone would come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me commands right and so we need to think about this what Jesus says to these disciples is actually not a metaphor as it is to us today they seen the criminals in their day get penalized by the Roman government through crucifixion they saw the men carrying a piece of wood up to their final death there they knew it they saw it and the sense of the expression is also voluntary the voluntary act he says to take up a cross it meant a death to self rule that we must take up a cross to deny self will self rule and surrender to
[27:42] God's will and so a couple implications of that command are he lays out for the disciples you want to count the cost here you go verse 24 25 and 26 he explains that life the paradox of life he says whoever would save his life will lose it if it's in your control to save your life you will lose your life that's not taking up your cross whoever would save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for my sake I love that point for my sake will save it so in other words the greatest loss in this life is compromising upon the terms and conditions the fine print of your confession of who is Jesus Christ there are terms and conditions to that not only is there sort of this logic and implication of life being redefined in a paradox but also there's logic of profit here he asks in a rhetorical question he says in verse 25 what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself in other words even the greatest earthly gain is worthless!
[29:12] if it costs eternal life and compromise and then to a warning a logic of shame of who Jesus is a logic of shame in your confession he says in verse 26 whoever is ashamed of me and my words of him will the son of man be ashamed when he comes in his glory in other words public rejection of Jesus Christ now is the ultimate rejection when he comes in glory you see if we trace this flow we see how radical this is like if you're visiting here today you're probably like man this is a radical church there I mean not only are they preaching the Bible but they're saying to die for Jesus I'll reassure you this this is normal faith in
[30:17] Jesus this is not radical our culture has made us soft to the reality of suffering we trace the flow we see how radical it is deny yourself take up your cross why Jesus true life is only found by losing it for Christ that's interesting why else worldly!
[30:40] worldly profit is meaningless if you lose your soul interesting why else Jesus eternal glory or shame hinges on your present allegiance with Jesus Christ take up your cross and follow him it is costly carrying the cross means denying ourselves we can become highly confused in our culture today and I'm going to unpack this a little bit here sort of what this means in a modern sense of taking up your cross because many many call every inconvenience in their life as equivalent to a cross every inconvenience becomes our crosses so demanding boss picking up my cross following him flat tire and believe it or not chronic illness right these are not crosses and it's nonsense here
[31:53] Jesus clarifies in his own words that he's not talking vaguely about hardships of things in life that are causing issues and pain he was calling his disciples to a crucified life a life that lives so openly for Jesus Christ whether your legs chopped off or not you keep going and preaching the gospel not complaining about your leg chopped off I don't know why that example came out but that's it told you I messed up but a life that lives so openly for Jesus Christ that the world's rejection of your profession is inevitable because the world does not want truth and so to follow Jesus means to die daily die daily you might ask how well
[32:56] Jesus makes it clear to our pride our possessions and our self preservation die to all of those things but on the flip side I want to qualify this this isn't a call to extremism thanks pastor rick for putting this point in my head we shouldn't run to martyrdom like I want to die for Jesus and you just run into the front line of the battlefield right there's wisdom in this right as if our lives are not glorifying God you view your life the mundaneness of life like a nine to five and just the other things we have to remember that the Bible is literally highlight reels of the disciples life like between verse 27 and 28 there were eight days that passed along they probably had a boring eight days right this mundaneness of life that sometimes we forget about is also glorifying to God we don't need to be living in this extremism 24 7 without paying the ultimate price like your life is not value to
[34:04] Jesus your obedience is not valuable to Jesus however in a practical sense in a realistic sense not extremism not the other side but in a practical sense it would seem that according to Jesus the church must be ready to give her life that's practical that's rational that all of us sitting here today if you are a Christian must be ready to give your life have you counted that cost of your confession a truth that's so absolute that not even the powers of hell can silence maybe today might be looked at as like a covenant renewal that as you see the news headlines of Charlie
[35:05] Kirk or you see his table covered in blood all of a sudden it's woken you up to that cost and today sort of serves as this covenant renewal of how far you've drifted from that reality there's there's one thing that that shooter did not anticipate he did not think about biblical theology right the shooter forgot biblical theology that every attempt of evil to silence is only the very means of which propels the truth the truth is propelled through oppression through the world's attempts of silencing Do you remember this church from the book of Acts?
[36:13] This life always a vapor I was listening to your prayer Carmen and I was just marveled like I'm like literally we didn't collaborate these are same languages this is just a vapor it's temporal right and verse 27 pushes us to an even greater reality past this life where Charlie Kirk and every other martyr in history for their faith knew about the total glory of the presence of God future every Christian who will rest and remain in glory because of their confession so as we ask why do we endure such a life of dying this sort of radical in a sense way of living well it's because the cross is never the ending of the story you see that in the gospel the plan of redemption for humanity according to
[37:16] God's authorship the cross is never the end of the story and we see that in the third point and the final point denying ourselves means fixing our eyes on his glory we see that from verse 28 to 36 Christ never calls people to suffer without showing them the glory that awaits never calls people to suffer without showing them the glory that awaits we see eight days later Jesus takes Peter James John up to a mountain and literally in this transfiguration this marvelous scene heaven opens to them Christ's face shines his garments ablaze in verse 28 Moses and Elijah appear in verse 30 and the cloud of
[38:22] God's glory descends and you see this this quick fulfillment of verse 27 he's like some of you aren't going to experience death without seeing glory and it's like one verse later Luke's like watch this right watch this to see what every Christian anticipates after our vapor of a life passes away I think what they see here is the big picture a divine headline that is the headlines of all the headlines in this life of our hope of eternal life and glory in the presence of God within this moment there's echoes of Sinai and prophets all of this imagery is symbolically unmistakable you know it wasn't David that showed it wasn't
[39:24] Joseph or anything like that it certainly wasn't Adam he would have got slapped but Moses what did his life represent the law Elijah what did his life represent the prophets and so literally symbolically and actually realistically here in this transfiguration the law and the prophets were pointing to Jesus were surrounded by Jesus speaking with Jesus about his departure his exodus to be accomplished in Jerusalem these are the first mentions of suffering that is to come in the entire gospel of Luke and here after verse 31 we see a voice that declares this is my son my chosen one listen to him these disciples they cower in this luminous cloud
[40:41] I don't blame them in verse 33 and they see the cloud in verse 34 and Peter Peter speaks not to his own credit but he's babbling about tents like come on let's hang out for a while it's good that we're here he's talking about tents but the father silences all things with one command listen to him listen to him in verse 35 so when the light fades only Jesus Christ remains Jesus Christ alone the center of all history the point and the emphasis that the law and the prophets point to and emphasize the focus of all eternity is here it is the light that darkness can never destroy but only causes the light to shine brighter you see this is why we deny ourselves church confidently carry the cross glory will come the cross isn't the end glory awaits for you and if darkness does come we know it will only cause the light to burn brighter and you see the big picture church
[42:08] Jesus Christ is the radiance of God and one day we will share in that according to Romans 8 17 this transfiguration! was just a foretaste of what Paul calls our blessed hope back to our series in Titus chapter 2 verse 13 the cross Jesus calls us to carry is not simply the pain of living in a broken world painful but it's not simply the pain it is the deliberate the daily cost of allegiance to Jesus Christ come hell or high water that's the cross whether that comes at a cost of rejection loss ridicule or even death the church sings it is well with my soul because this life is just a vapor going back to the martyrs we see
[43:19] Stephen he saw the son of man standing in glory polycarp declared how can I blaspheme my king who saved me perpetual urge stand fast in the faith and love one another Tyndale prayed Lord open the king of England's eyes Huss testified a swan shall arise that you will not silence and Charlie Kirk confessed all death can do to the believer is deliver him to Jesus he knew it and the father spoke himself attesting that same truth this is my son my chosen one listen to him the church listen to him follow him take up your cross whatever it may cost you and never forget the main point today that the path of blood is the path to glory it always has been and it always will be let's pray happy