August 2, 2026 - The Words That Form Us - Mark 8:34-38

Welcome to the Fort St.

John Alliance Sermon Podcast.

I'm Nick Perry, the youth pastor here at the church.

We're so glad you've joined us today.

Our desire as a church is to become a community of people who practice the way of Jesus together, and through the empowering of the Holy Spirit, live on mission to meet the social and spiritual needs of the world around us.

Each week we gather as a community to worship, learn from God's Word, and to be encouraged in our walk with Christ.

In this podcast, you'll hear the latest message from our Sunday service.

Whether you're listening from right here in Fort St.

John or from afar, our prayer is that God will speak to your heart and strengthen your faith.

Let's lean in together as we hear today's sermon.

So today our scripture reading is in Mark chapter 8, and I'll be reading from verses 34 through 38.

Mark 8 · chapter mention

Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said, Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.

What good is it for someone to gain the whole world yet forfeit their soul?

Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?

If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his father's glory with the holy angels.

This is the word of the Lord.

You may be seated.

Today is um the I want to say the end of our pastors being gone.

That's not entirely true.

I mean they'll be back, but next weekend we have still a guest preacher.

But we get the blessing and the gift of being able to have our what I would say longtime friend of our church, Darren Ride, here to preach for us this morning.

So, Darren, we are just so blessed to be able to have you local that once in a while you come bless us with your presence, right?

Thanks, Aaron.

Good morning.

And thanks to the worship team.

This morning, I when I was pastoring, I'd always every service I would try to sneak in at least one song of desperation.

You know, just a song of saying, God, I need you, because that's kind of how I always felt every Sunday morning and still do.

And they gave us a whole series this morning.

So that was excellent, excellent for me.

It's what I needed this morning.

Have you ever been out for a walk or out for a drive and you just see something and it catches your eye and it stops you in your tracks?

And maybe, maybe it's so striking that you turn around and go back and look at it.

I know when we're on a trip going anywhere, I have a hard time stopping and a hard time turning around.

But a couple times this happened.

One time it was a good Friday morning.

We were heading to Grand Prairie, and there was this dark front moving in, like really black front, just coming in, covering the sunrise sky.

And so we pull over and took a look, and this is what we saw this huge dark cloud coming in.

It was again it was Good Friday morning.

And so it had this almost this spiritual sense of this is what Good Friday's about.

And where Jesus is on the cross and Jesus died, and it was all over.

And it was just one of those times when I had to pull over and just watch this dark cloud roll across the morning sky and just bring darkness absolutely everywhere.

Another time we were coming back from some hikes over the town, maybe the cactus trails or somewhere, and came across this scene that was just, it was kind of this haphazard, uh messy scene, but it was so striking.

I think this might have been one of the three times my life actually turned around and went back.

Actually turned around and went back because it was just so striking.

And it was this scene, I don't know how well you can see that, uh, a little bit bright up here right now, but the the canola was just this bright yellow, and I had to drop the drop the exposure, of course, because the canola was so bright, and that brought out the clouds in the sky, just this crazy, beautiful, messy scene that uh just for whatever the reason just kind of struck a chord, and it was one of those one of those places where we had to go back and and just look for a little bit.

Sometimes that happens when I'm reading.

I come across a phrase or an idea, and I just have to either sometimes I have a little record, record it, or write it down or mark it up if it's my own book, and just try to remember that thing.

And sometimes that happens, I'm sure it's happened to you when I'm reading the Bible.

A couple weeks ago, I was working my way through Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Many years ago, I memorized Romans and haven't been great at keeping up my reviews on that, but I was working through and working on chapter eight and came to chapter eight, verse 15, I think, and it said something like this.

It said, uh, for the Lord has not given you spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but he's giving you the spirit of sonship or the spirit of adoption.

And it kind of played off these two ideas, this spirit of fear versus the spirit of adoption.

Spirit of fear versus knowing that you're God's child.

And the idea, the thing that kind of struck me, I had never seen, I've been over that passage hundreds of times, had never seen this interplay between fear and the assurance that you're God's child.

And that one of the big remedies to fear, whatever the fear is, doesn't matter what the fear is, knowing you're God's child and being secure in that and resting in that actually addresses a lot of the fears that we face.

Many years ago, I actually did some math this weekend, it's a lot closer to 50 years ago than I thought it would be.

But many years ago, I was reading through the Bible for the first time.

I signed up to read through the Bible for a church, uh, church, read the Bible through a new year thing.

And as I was getting through the New Testament, I came to this passage we're looking at this morning in Mark chapter 8.

Mark 8 · chapter mention

Mark chapter 8, verses 34 to 38.

Mark 8:34–38

And as I was reading that, when I got there, I stopped.

It stopped me in my little teenage tracks.

Because when I read it, I realized this 100% applies to me.

This is a passage that allows no wiggle room.

This 100% applies to me.

And if I'm going to be a Christian, if I'm gonna be a follower of Jesus, this passage is one that I've gotta wrestle through.

And I wrestled through it, and I feel like I've been wrestling through it most of my Christian life.

And so this morning I want to invite you into my experience of Mark chapter 8, verses 34 to 38.

Mark 8:34–38

This is the first passage I ever memorized on my own accord.

It was that compelling.

I just thought I better memorize this.

It's really, really important.

And for me, it was a bit of a, you know, a two by four between the eyes moment and has been many times since, and maybe it will be that uh for you this morning.

Let me just read those first few verses again.

Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me.

Whoever wants to save their life will lose it.

Whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.

What good is it for you to gain the whole world yet forfeit your soul?

What can you give in exchange for your soul?

If any one of you is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of you when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels.

What I didn't realize at the time, and I realized as I've been studying it the last few weeks, you know, I'd never preached on this passage ever before last week in Dawson Creek.

So even though I memorized it and lived with it and fought with it, I've never preached on it before this summer.

And so as I've been studying, I realize there's something that happens just before that's kind of important and kind of helps us understand the impact of this passage.

In verse 27, that's where Jesus says, Who do people say I am?

The disciples say, Some would say you're John the Baptist, some Elijah, some a prophet.

What about you?

Who do you say I am?

And Peter answered, You're the Messiah.

And so we see in that passage the disciples were beginning to understand who Jesus was.

They knew at least he was the Messiah.

But then the next verses, Jesus then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, the teachers of the law, he must be killed, and after three days rise again.

He spoke plainly to them about this.

And Peter, who just identified Jesus as the Messiah, Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter.

Get behind me, Satan.

You don't have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.

So on the one hand, the disciples are starting to understand who Jesus is, but on the other hand, they don't fully understand how he's going to accomplish what he's going to accomplish.

They know he's the Messiah.

They have a picture in the mind of what that looks like, but they don't fully understand how that's going to play out.

And then Jesus, right after that, he calls them together and says, Whoever wants to be my disciple?

And then gives us this teaching.

And I think there's a clear relationship between what Jesus taught here and what had just happened.

The context is so critically important.

See, what's happening here again, the disciples didn't fully understand.

They knew he was the Messiah.

And in their mind, that meant he was going to turf the Romans, set up his kingdom in Israel, the great, you know, just like it was in the days of David and Solomon is going to come back, even greater.

That was their picture.

Now, if you're one of Jesus' inner circle and Jesus is now the king, where does that put you?

Cabinet minister, standard appointment, some kind of lucrative government contract, it's going to be good for you in some way, right?

If Jesus is set up and you're one of his buddies, it's going to be great.

And that was the picture in their mind.

But if, as Jesus said, he's going to suffer and die, that little scenario you have playing out for how it's going to work out for you doesn't quite fit anymore.

And so what's happening in this passage here is that Jesus is clarifying what it means to follow him.

Jesus is completely reframing and giving a reality check to his disciples and to us and to me and to you of what it means to actually follow him.

He called the crowd to him, along with his disciples.

Who's he talking to?

He's talking to the crowd and he's talking to his disciples.

Two groups.

His disciples, that's people who decide they're following Jesus.

The crowd of people who are kind of interested in Jesus, maybe thinking about following Jesus, haven't jumped all in.

So it really applies to the masses.

It applies to a lot of people.

And then we get to the next phrase, it says, whoever, whoever wants to be my disciple, must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

That's what caught my eye.

Whoever.

Translation I memorized said, if anyone.

This applies to you.

If you want to follow Jesus, it says this a hundred percent applies to you.

Doesn't matter how old you are, man or woman or child, doesn't matter how rich or poor you are, it doesn't matter what your job or profession is, that's what caught my eye.

Some translations say, whoever wants to be my disciple, another one says, Come at whoever wants to come after me, another, whoever wants to follow in my footsteps.

Basically, Jesus is saying, Whoever wants to follow me as I am calling you to follow, this applies to you.

And so if you're here this morning, if you're one of his disciples, follower of Jesus, this applies to you.

If you're part of the crowd, someone who's thinking about being a serious follower of Jesus, this applies to you.

There's absolutely zero wiggle room in this passage.

It applies to anyone who has any inclination about following Jesus.

Do you agree with that conclusion?

Does that make sense?

Whoever, he says whoever, it's whoever.

It's really important we agree to that.

Whoever.

All right.

If that's the case, Jesus says here's something you gotta do.

Three things to do.

Number one, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves.

What does it mean to deny yourself?

How many people here celebrate or observe Lent in some way?

Do Lent.

Some of you do I know talk about here.

I I have a very personalized practice for Lent.

I I um I drop Lent every year for Lent.

That's how I observe Lent.

I don't really pay a whole lot of attention to it.

This is not what it's talking about.

It's not talking about giving something up.

It's not talking about this, you know, the great sacrifice I'm making this morning by being in church and see how to go and canoeing.

This, you know, Sunday church thing is hard.

I'm giving it up.

You know, I'm denying myself and coming to church.

See how to go and camping.

That's not what it's talking about here.

I've got this big thick book at home called Hard Sayings of the Bible.

It talks about a lot of the passages that we just have a hard time with, some of that are hard to understand, and actually addresses this passage.

It says, denying yourself is a decisive saying of no to oneself, to one's hopes and plans and ambitions, to one's likes and dislikes, to one's nearest and dearest for the sake of Christ.

This is really important to get this clear.

Denying yourself is not denying yourself of something.

It's not saying I'm no longer gonna eat too many cookies, I'm not gonna place too many videos, I'm not gonna watch too much entertainment, I'm not gonna stop, I'm gonna stop this, I'm gonna deny.

That's not what it's talking about.

It's not talking about denying yourself of something, it's talking about denying yourself, renouncing yourself, demoting yourself.

See, every one of us wants to be number one.

Every one of us, if you look 360 degrees around you, you're at the center.

We're all at the center of our own universe.

From our perspective, we're in the middle.

And everything revolves around us, and that's what we want.

And we want to be comfortable and we want to be safe and we want to be secure, and there's nothing wrong with those things.

But denying yourself means we're no longer asking the question, what do I want?

I mean, there's a large swath of my life where that was my question.

What do I want?

That's what I'll do.

What do I want?

What it means to deny yourself is means that what I want and what I prefer is no longer my primary decision-making metric.

To deny yourself means that what you want and what you prefer is no longer your primary decision-making metric.

That's not how you make your decisions.

You know, if I was ever to get a tattoo, which I won't.

If I was ever to get a tattoo, I actually have debated getting a temporary one dismissed my son's head.

That's a separate, that's a separate issue.

But if I was ever to get a tattoo, I'd be very tempted to get the first sentence of the book, The Purpose-Driven Life.

Which I think people should read and reread and think about and be put on your wall.

Anybody know what it is?

First sentence.

It's not about you.

It's not about you.

And that's something we constantly need to be reminded of again and again.

It's not about you.

And to deny yourself means that you embrace the fact that your life is no longer about you.

That what you want, what I want, what is safe and comfortable and secure for me, is not a frame of decision making.

Jesus says, Whoever wants to follow me, start there.

Deny yourself.

And as if that's not enough, he then says, Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross.

What does that mean?

It doesn't mean just living through and putting up with the normal irritations and frustrations of life.

That's not what it means.

It doesn't mean you've got a job and you've got a bad boss who is a jerk and is always riding you and hassling you and making life difficult, and you think, well, that's just a cross I've got to bear.

That's not what this is talking about.

Life is hard for everybody.

There's stuff we have to put up.

That's not bearing our cross.

I guarantee that the people who heard this, when Jesus said that phrase, carry your cross, one picture came to their mind.

A prisoner being led away by the Romans, carrying their cross, about to be crucified.

That's the picture.

That's exactly what they would have seen, and that's what probably happened to some of these people.

Many were martyred for their faith.

What this means is that when the call to follow or obey Jesus might result in discomfort, might result in hardship, might result in persecution, might result in death, you've already made your decision way back there.

And the answer is yes, sir.

I will obey.

That's what it means to take up your cross.

That you are marching to your execution.

There's an old movie, not recommending, I haven't seen it for years.

There's probably something in it I wouldn't want to recommend.

It's called a movie called Safety Not Guaranteed.

And the whole thesis of the movie is that these friends see this ad in the newspaper that says, wanted.

Someone to go back in time with me.

This is not a joke.

You got paid after we get back.

Must bring your own weapons.

I've only done this once before.

Safety not guaranteed.

That's a great thesis for a movie, for a story.

Jesus says, You want to follow me?

Deny yourself, take up your cross, and you can follow me.

Your safety?

Your security?

Your survival?

Not guaranteed.

Not guaranteed.

It's interesting in the Luke 9 passage, that's a parallel passage to this.

It says, deny yourself and take up your cross daily.

Every single day.

Entering every single day as if this day could be my last, that I could be called to do something today for Jesus that will cost me my life.

That's what it means to deny yourself and take up your cross and follow him.

And then in verse 35, he kind of gives a reason why you might want to do that.

He says, Whoever wants to save my life, whoever wants to save their life will lose it.

But whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.

There's that word again.

Whoever applies to me, applies to you.

Zero wiggle room.

Whoever wants to save their life.

What does it mean in this context?

Whoever wants to save their life will lose it.

What does it mean to save your life there?

Well, it means probably in some way, you know, maxing out life for pleasure.

It means probably drifting into hedonism.

But in this context, it means avoiding things and avoiding suffering and death by not following Jesus.

Saving your life means not following Jesus in a way you want to be followed, so you can avoid some trouble, so you can avoid some ridicule, some pain and suffering.

And what it says is if you do that, you'll temporarily save your life.

But in the end, you'll lose it.

And then he says right away, whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.

What does it mean to lose your life for Jesus and the gospel?

Again, whoever.

I know I've told the story before of our little girl Danielle when she was little, elementary age, maybe in kindergarten age, we're watching a movie about the persecuted church.

And there was a dramatization where these soldiers came into this Christian home and hauled people away and put them in prison.

And she's just sitting there watching it.

All of a sudden she turned to us, she said, Are we Christians?

We said, Yeah, we're Christians.

And she just started crying, said, I don't want to be a Christian.

He said, Why not?

Because I don't want to die.

The temptation would be to say, Oh, it's okay.

You're not gonna die.

We're safe, we're secure.

And based on our passage, that would be a lie.

That'd be bad parenting.

Instead, God's intervention, I'm sure, we asked her the question: what will happen if you die?

Thought for a little bit, could see her little wheels turning.

I'll go to heaven and be with Jesus.

And she was fine.

And she was fine.

To lose your life for Jesus and the gospel might mean dying because of it, but it will certainly mean giving the time, the hours, and the minutes of your life to live with Jesus aligned with him.

It's interesting he says it doesn't just say, whoever wants to lose their life, whoever loses life for me will save it.

He says, Whoever loses life for me and the gospel, he links himself to the gospel.

Whoever loses himself for me and my mission will save it.

We just studied this in our group a few weeks ago.

I knew I was going to preach on it, and so I did a study with our group, and we get so many insights when we study a passage together.

And I ask the question what does it mean to give Your life for Jesus in the gospel.

One of a group members says, it's obvious.

It means to live on mission.

It means to live on mission.

And that's right.

To save your life by living on mission means that your life counts for eternity.

I really believe that the ultimate value and significance of our entire existence is going to be to find and evaluate in relation to Jesus and the gospel.

That's the reference point.

Jesus and the gospel.

And how aligned is our life or not with that.

Now that doesn't mean that every one of us is called the vocational Christian ministry to pastors, missionaries, everything else.

We need people living on mission in every facet of society.

Wherever you live, we need Christians there.

Wherever you work, we need Christians there.

People living on mission.

But this does mean that every Christian is gifted and called to ministry where they are.

Full time, by the way.

No retirement.

Every Christian is gifted and called to ministry.

One obvious question that often comes up when you look at this passage, it's a very obvious question.

Is this talking about getting saved?

Losing your life, saving your life?

Is that talking about salvation?

It's almost the same question as asking, can Jesus be my Savior and not be my Lord?

Can I believe in Jesus and get saved but not actually follow him?

That's the question that kind of comes up in relation to this passage.

What do you think?

Is this talking about salvation?

As I study this passage, I thought of this other one in 1 Corinthians chapter 3.

1 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

Where it says, No one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.

If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the day will bring it to light.

It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person's work.

If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward.

If it's burned up, the builder will suffer loss, but yet will be saved, even though only is one escaping through flames.

I think that's the best case scenario.

The best case scenario is some people are going to get saved just through flames, but what their life was all about didn't matter in light of eternity.

That's the best case scenario when we look back at this passage.

Then Jesus asks a couple of rhetorical questions.

He says, What good is it for you to gain the whole world yet four foot your soul?

It's a rhetorical question.

The answer is supposed to be obvious.

What's the answer?

What good is it?

What's the answer?

No good.

Another rhetorical question: what can you give in exchange for your soul?

What's the answer?

Nothing.

You lose your soul, you've got nothing.

It's your eternal well-being that's at stake here.

And then we come to verse 38.

If any one of you are ashamed of me and my words, in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of you when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels.

Who does this apply to?

Any of you.

There's that idea again.

Again, that's what got me in this passage.

Whoever, if anyone, if any of you, it applies to me.

It applies to you.

What would it look like to be ashamed of Jesus?

Again, in our context, it means not doing what he calls us to do, not denying ourselves, not taking up our cross, and not following him in this way.

In a way, this passage is very parallel, without using the words, very parallel to baptism.

Because what does baptism mean?

Dying and coming alive.

Dying to yourself and coming alive to Jesus in this passage, baptism shows that you're not ashamed.

Doesn't mention baptism, but there's a lot of parallels here with what baptism actually means.

Jesus says, if you're ashamed of me, I'll be ashamed of you.

That's one of the scariest phrases in the Bible in my mind.

What would it look like for Jesus to be ashamed of me?

I thought of Revelation 3, church in Laodicea, where Jesus says, You're neither hot nor cold, you're lukewarm.

Because you're lukewarm, I'm going to spew you out of my mouth.

I don't know all that that means, but I don't want to find out.

And I think it's somewhat of a parallel passage to this one.

Having Jesus ashamed of me is the opposite of the well done.

You know, well done, good and faithful servant.

Oh, it's you.

Like, well, what does that look like to have Jesus ashamed of you?

I can't imagine what that would be like.

Jesus said, Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow me.

I think this is worth memorizing.

If not, the whole passage, at least verse 34.

Let's just read that together.

Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

Let's do it one more time.

Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

And this, my friends, is a haunting passage because it applies to you.

And it applies to me, and there is zero wiggle room.

If you want to follow Jesus, you've got to deal with this passage.

It's the words of Jesus Himself, clarifying for his disciples, clarifying for the crowd, clarifying for us what it actually means to follow Him.

Young Christian asked an old saint what it means to be crucified with Christ, to die for Jesus.

This was his reply.

The person on the cross is facing in only one direction.

They're not going back.

They have no further plans of their own.

That's not a bad summary of this passage.

One direction, not going back, no further plans of your own.

I find this a hard passage.

But you know what's harder than doing what this passage says?

Living in double-mindedness.

Believing but not following.

That's agony on every level.

And I believe that if you believe, even as you hear what I consider a tough passage, a tough call, that if you believe, there's a tug, there's a draw, that you want to follow Jesus the way he is calling you to follow him, but you know it's hard.

And you recognize that some things might have to change, some things might have to die.

But there's a tug and there's a pull.

Danish philosopher Soran Kierkegaard had a story about a goose that got wounded one spring and kind of made a crash landing into a barnyard and found itself among the chickens.

And as it was recovering, it kind of hung out with the chickens and it ate the chicken feed and it slept where the chickens slept and kind of walked around with them all day.

And over time it kind of started feeling like a chicken.

It got very, very comfortable, very secure.

There was food, there was water, there was, you know, protection.

It was great.

And the summer went by and fall came.

When fall came, of course, the geese started flying over and started migrating south.

And this goose is in the barnyard and he's, you know, getting healthy, he's feeling pretty good.

And these geese go over and they start honking.

And he hears it and he looks up and he sees the geese and he hears the honk and it remembers he's a goose and he starts the honk and he flexes his wings and he takes off out of the barnyard and then folds his wings and settles back down.

With the chickens, with the safety, with security, with the food, with the mud.

Felt the tug, felt the pull, but settled for less.

And that happens many times in our Christian life.

Where there's a prompting of the Spirit to take the next step.

And I would just say, whatever that next step is for you, don't settle for less.

Follow Jesus as he's calling you to follow him.

Because, as our passage says, he's coming in his Father's glory with the holy angels.

What happens then?

Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

And we have the privilege right now of choosing to do that willingly.

Saying, Lord, I know who you are.

You're the Messiah.

You have the words of eternal life.

And so I choose to deny myself.

I choose to take up my cross.

I choose to follow you because of who you are and what you've done and what you're going to do.

And I believe, Lord, because of who you are, it is worth it.

And my suspicion is whatever that next step is for you in following Jesus, you already know what it is.

And if you don't, just ask Him.

And he will make it clear.

Jesus said, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up the cross and follow me.

Applies to me, it applies to you.

We've got to deal with this passage if we're going to follow Jesus as he wants to be followed.

Would you stand with me as we pray this morning?

Lord Jesus, I thank you that you're so patient with us.

You're patient with your slow disciples, you're patient with your slow disciples today.

And I pray that you will speak to us very personally and directly and clearly and help us understand what it means for each of us today to deny ourselves, to take up our cross, and to follow you.

And I pray it will be as obvious as night and day what the next step is in our following of you.

And I pray that your spirit will empower us, that we will choose to follow you.

You'll give us the courage and the grace to follow you, whatever that next step is.

We confess freely, you are the Messiah.

You are Lord.

You're coming back.

Between now and then, we want to follow you as you're calling us to follow.

Have mercy and help us, we pray.

In your name, Jesus.

Amen.

Amen.