A NEWSLETTER FOR THE MEMBERS OF THE GREENWOOD CHURCH OF CHRIST
VOLUME 1 NO. 33 OCTOBER 3, 2004
“DENYING SELF”
PART I
BY STEVE NIEMEIER
“Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.” (Matthew 16:24). Jesus had just finished explaining to His disciples that He would suffer many things from the elders, chief priests and scribes. He even told them of His upcoming death and resurrection. Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke Him telling Him that this would not happen. Jesus answered Peter with that now famous line of, “Get thee behind Me, Satan!” Then Jesus quoted the statement at the beginning of this paragraph.
While Jesus explained and tried to teach Peter and the others of what was going to happen and what it would cost to follow Him, Peter listened but did not understand. Many preachers stand before audiences today and preach about denying oneself and following after Jesus. Yet, when it comes down to practicing what we preach or applying what we hear preached it is a different story. Have you ever really stopped to think about what Jesus has asked us to do? He is basically asking us to abstain from pleasures that we would desire and follow Him. How strong was this message? All we have to do is to look in the 26th verse of this 16th chapter of Matthew. “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”
As we examine what we might exchange for our soul let us open our spiritual hearts to an extensive examination. Would you exchange your soul for $5,000? Now don't be so quick to answer “no” until we really think about it. For many of you this seems like a small amount of money to consider exchanging your soul for it. But how about the individual who has an enormous amount of debt and is unemployed? Would you exchange your soul for $50,000? NO? What if your child needed a life saving operation and the $50,000 would allow you to have this operation done? May I suggest to you that many of us have already exchanged our soul for a whole lot less than $50,000 or even $5,000.
When we tell a small white lie, did we deny ourselves and follow Jesus? When we “borrow” that item from our work place that no one will ever miss, did we deny ourselves and follow Jesus? When thowe of us as parents bought those short skirts, crop tops, provocative hiphugger jeans, and etc. for our teen-agers to wear so they could be “socially accepted”, did we deny ourselves and follow after Jesus? When one does not willfully attend services of the local congregation where he is a member, have they denied themselves and followed after Jesus? When one “pouts” and harbors hard feelings because he didn't get his way in the business meeting, did he deny himself and follow after Jesus? When one does not fulfill their responsibilities to the local congregation in doing the Lord's work, did they deny themselves and follow after Jesus? You see my friend we talk a great game, especially in our Bible classes, from the pulpit and in front of our Christian brothers and sisters. However, walking the walk of denying ourselves and taking up our cross and following after Jesus is tough expecially when we can't get by that first requirement, deny himself. If we could ever master that, the following after Jesus would not be as hard because we would have removed a main obstacle. Now, what did you say it would take for you to exchange your soul? Is it possible that we might be surprised at what we may have exchanged our soul for already?
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