JUNIOR HIGH SUNDAY SCHOOL

THE CROSS (1): LIVE TO DIE

Following isn’t easy.

Believing and following Jesus are two different things.

To follow Jesus is to walk where He walks.

Following Jesus costs us something.

Wouldn’t it be easier if we could all just believe and not follow?

[Jesus] then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this, and 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!” he said. “You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men” (Mark 8:31-33 NIV).

Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels”

(Mark 8:34-38 NIV).

The cross is a place where Jesus died and where we die too.

When we follow Jesus, we submit our desires and selfish aims.

From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him (John 6:66 NIV).

Believing is the beginning, then we follow.

In order to have life, we have to lose our lives.

What in your life needs to die so you can truly follow Jesus?

Bottom Line: The cross isn’t just where Jesus died. It is where we come to die with Him.