Chapter # 8 Paragraph # 7 Study # 2
November 1, 2022
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
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Thesis: Self-denial boils down to being seriously committed to 1) adopting Jesus' value system and 2) the progress of the Gospel.
Introduction: In our last study we pursued a bit of a digression from Mark's "context" to address the particularly difficult question of how one manages to be a "faithful steward" of the task individually assigned to each believer.
This evening we are going to begin to look into what Jesus insists upon for everyone who "is willing to come after" Him.
- I. Assuming The Pattern Under The Umbrella Doctrine Of "If Anyone Is Willing To Come After Me...".
- A. The pattern as a parallel alignment of the statements.
- 1. "...let him deny himself..." is parallel to "...whosoever would save his soul shall lose it...".
- 2. "...and take up his cross..." is parallel to "...what doth it profit a man...".
- 3. "...follow me..." is parallel to "...whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words...".
- 4. This "Come After Me" parallelism is in the form of "requirement" followed by "a primary reason for not pursuing the requirement".
- B. The unifying issue is "...to come after Me...".
- 1. This "coming after" is given as a "relational sphere coming" that has its roots in the physical sphere action of "walking along the same path as Jesus was walking after He has walked upon it".
- a. The physical sphere analogy is a kind of "stepping in His footprints" so that the one "coming after" faces the terrain in the same way Jesus faced it.
- 1) From 1:3 to our present text, the "terrain" issue is "the wilderness".
- 2) Also from 1:3 to our present text, that "terrain" is a metaphor/analogy of the actual condition of the complexity of the fallen human heart with its many paths, twists and turns, obstacles to progress, and level places with no obstacles; all existing as aspects of man's values that are rooted in the one issue of selfishness, but have a great many individual aspects and manifestations of that one issue.
- b. The relational sphere aspect of the meaning of the words signals the "follower" as one who does the same thing Jesus previously did when He faced the details of the same "terrain" that the "follower" is facing upon the path previously trod by Jesus (Hebrews 4:15).
- 2. This "coming after" means "dealing with the issues of life in the same way Jesus did" (as in, 'when Jesus came to a large stone in the path -- the "largest" of which was "this cup" --, what steps did He take to get beyond it?').
- a. Prayer.
- b. Yielding to "Thy will" as revealed by Scripture.
- II. Allowing the "pattern" to explain the instruction.
- A. Element One: Self-Denial.
- 1. On the basis of the words of the first "approach to coming after Him", Jesus is requiring that the one "coming after" refuse to step out of the footprints of Jesus in order to create his/her "own" set of footprints by attempting to deal with the details of the "terrain" in the typical ways of "oneself".
- 2. Then, on the basis of the parallel words, Jesus seems to be dealing with the actual "desire" that would cause one to "step out of the footprints of Jesus" in order to deal with the "path" in a different way than Jesus did.
- a. Thus Jesus presents the "necessity" of remaining in His footprints upon the path, and, then, addressing the question of why one "coming after" would want to create his/her own footprints.
- b. In this first element, the "at issue" reality is the person's focus upon some "danger to the soul" that he/she might avoid if he/she left the footprints of Jesus.
- 1) This posits the reality of a conflict between the "willing" that produces the initial decision to step into Jesus' footprints, and the "willing" that seeks to put the comfort of deliverance from danger to the "soul" ahead of the previous "willingness".
- 2) This conflict of willingness reveals the lack of a firm commitment to "come after Him" with His footprints as the guide, but still wanting to be sufficiently committed as to end up where He ended His journey. [This is James' "double-minded" man: James 1:8 with the words of James actually being "of two souls."] This is the issue of our familiar claim to be unable to "have your cake and eat it too".
- c. In this first element, Jesus declared the "loss" that will come if the steps of Jesus are avoided, and the gain that will come if "...My sake and the Gospel's..." are preserved as the goals.
