To Deny Yourself

This teaching is the first of a eight with a focus of actually Christian living. The goal is to take the beatitudes and expound on them and build a picture of what an authetic Christ follower would look like.

The frist concept that we must learn is....

To Deny Yourself

Matthew 5:3 - Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The word ‘blessed’ in the original Greek text means: blessed, fortunate, happy usually in the sense of privileged recipient of divine favor.[i]

The privileged recipient of divine favor, how cool is that?

There is this guy, he is famous, and people groups all over the world today claim they are from his family tree and is was a person who was a privileged recipient of divine favor. This guy is Abraham. This man denied himself so much. He sold himself out from this one God in a cultural where there was hundred’s and thousands of gods. And this God told Abraham because of his faithfulness to Him that he would make Abraham a father of many nations.

Then God gave him a son at a very, very, very old age, scripture says that he was 100 years old.[ii] Abraham loved his son Isaac (son of his wife Sara) he was thankful for this gift from God.

But it says in Genesis 22

One day God decides to test Abraham's faith. "Abraham!" God called. “Yes,” he replied. “Here I am.” God intructed to take Isaac, his only son with his wife Sara and the son whom he loves so much, and to travel to the land of Moriah and put his son on an altar and give him as a brunt offering on one of the mountains, which God will so him.

Hang, wait a minute. Did God just ask Abraham to sacrifice his whom Abraham loves so much? This is so out of character for God. This is the first time that God has ask for the blood of a human.

I attend Rob Bell’s latest speaking tour: Why Aren’t the gods Angry? Now I am not going to spoil Rob’s message so you will have to go and get it on DVD, but he goes into some of the different types of pagan worship. Rob talks about a Canaanite god of hops or a beer god. They sang songs and celebrated this god by drinking fine golden brew of fine ales. And often these celebrations end with people passing out and have terrible headaches in the morning.

Now this was type of a more ridiculous type of pagan worship but there was bloodier and grotesque type of pagan worship. Now there was many of gods in many different cultures but Molech the Canaanite god of fire is probably the god that will hit home.

Molech, (or Molek) was the chief god of the Phoenicians, and Canaanites, mentioned as the god of the Ammonites, Western Semitic, probably known to the Israelites before King Solomon. Human sacrifices were offered to him, mainly firstborn children, the victims were slowly burned to death in the outstretched arms of this idol, which were metal, hollow and could be heated on the inside. Some say they fell into the fire below. Manasech offered his son to Molech. Solomon erected an altar to this god on one of the summits of Mount Olivet. (1 Kings 11:7) This idol worshipping continued there and in Tophet until Josiah abolished it and defiled the altars. (2 Kings 23:30) Molech was also worshipped in Carthage, where at one times about 200 little boys were sacrificed in hopes of saving that city from siege.[iii]

So why does this God of Abraham, who is the creator of life want to take life? I cannot imagine the stock and sadness that Abraham must have felt. That is God who stated that he is the only and true God. The God whom promised Abraham that he would be the father of nations, now asks Abraham to sacrifice his only son from Sara.

So does Abraham do? He does not argue. He does not curse God nor cries out to God. What does Abraham do?

Abraham obeys. And he probably did not even dwell on these questions for 5 seconds. Because he did not wait very long to act on. In fact Abraham, Isaac, and two of his servants left early the next morning and headed to the land of Moriah. They traveled for three days until Abraham looked up and saw the place place in the distance. Then intructed his servants to stay with the donkey while Isaac and him go up and worship. So Abraham place the wood on the shoulders of his son and Abraham carried the torch and the knife.

As they were working up the mountian Isaac ask his father, "Father, we have wood and fire, but were is the the lamp or goat for the sacifrice?" Abraham relpied, "God will provide."

Abraham obeyed. Not only did Abraham obeyed God but his son Isaac obeyed too. You see Isaac was not a small boy of eight to twelve years old. Isaac was more closer to the age of 30 when this took place, which places Abraham at the age of 130 years old, kind of crazy. I would like to think that if Isaac did not want to be placed on the alter, he would not have a problem stopping his 130 year old father from tying him up. But there was not a struggle, Isaac denied himself.

So, Abraham bound his son and placed Isaac on the wood alter and raised the knife. I can image the tear in his, but Abraham denied himself and placed himself at the mercy of God in his worship.

Then God intervened and provided.

Angel of God called to Abraham from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham! Don't lay a hand on the boy! Do not hurt him in any way, for I know that yout truly fear God. You have not withheld from me even your son, your only son."

Then in the corner of Abraham's eye he sees something that was not there before. A ram was caught by its horns in a thicket. So he took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering in place of his son. Abraham named the place Yahweh-Yireh (which means “the Lord will provide”). To this day, people still use that name as a proverb: “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”

Then the angel of the Lord called again to Abraham from heaven. (16) “This is what the Lord says: Because you have obeyed me and have not withheld even your son, your only son, I swear by my own name that I will certainly bless you. I will multiply your descendants beyond number, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will conquer the cities of their enemies. And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed—all because you have obeyed me.”

Denying yourself is the first sign and step towards following Jesus. Like we just fold out with Abraham, a great figure of faith.

Mark 8:34-38
(34) Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. (35) If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it. (36) And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? (37) Is anything worth more than your soul? (38) If anyone is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

Strong words from Jesus. But He laid it down and said this is how it is going to be.

Jesus was the perfect example, He deny himself, submitted to the cross so that we might gain back what we lost in the garden, perfect relationship with God and with each other. But it is not for free. It does cost something, it cost you our life. Grace and Discipleship cannot separated from each other.

It is impossible to call yourself a Christian with first denying yourself, becoming poor in spirit, and taking up your cross and following in order to become a true disciple.

This is how a person can maximize their potential here on earth, by denying themselves and taking up their cross.

Conclusion

“A Christian is a person living out the function of Christ” – Cliff Bragg

“We try so hard to length our lives instead of deepening our lives” – Erwin McManus

“The only man who has the right to say he justified by grace alone is the man who has left all to fellowship Christ. Such a man knows that the call to discipleship is a gift of grace, and that the call is inseparable from the grace. But those who try to use this grace as a dispensation from following Christ are simple deceiving themselves.”
– Dietrich Bonhoeffer[iv]

BE LIKE JESUS, IMITATE HIM IN EVERY WAY!!!

The Blessing:

May you and not live in the fakeness and superficial world that is around us today.
May you realize that you created to be full of potential.
May you realize that denying is not trapping you but freeing you to experience the fullness of Jesus Christ.
And may you BE LIKE JESUS and IMITATE HIM IN EVERY WAY!!!

Endnotes:
[i] Frederick Danker Shorter Lexicon of the Greek New Testament (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983) pg 121.

[ii] Genesis 21:2

[iii] Smith's Bible Dictionary, Philadelphia, A. J. Holman, Co., Revised Ed., p. 205Jordan, Michael, Encyclopedia of Gods, New York, Facts On File, Inc. 1993, p. 168

[iv] Dietrich Bonhoeffer Cost of Discipleship (New York: Touchstone Books, 1959) pg 51.