Practical Christianity: Satisfaction
Mark 8:34-36

Introduction:

    Everyone wants to be happy. People everywhere seek pleasure. We are all like what Solomon says about himself in Eccl 2:10. Yet most people are unhappy—some more than others, certainly and many people would claim to be happy. But the amount of money spent on drugs (legal and illegal) that are used to avoid pressure from life’s problems, the growing failure of family life, the rise of road rage and many other forms of sinful anger and violence tells the tragic tale in ugly tones. The way of the world is the path to ruin, not happiness (Prov 4:19).

    In contrast, true Christianity knows from the Bible that God made humanity with a great purpose: to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. As John Piper has eloquently pointed out, this statement is one purpose, not two; in other words, we glorify God by enjoying him forever. Or as Piper has also said, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.” [Desiring God, p. 50] However, few people know the intense joy of being most satisfied in God. Most people settle for far too little and for what will only produce short-term happiness and what will produce long-term, eternal misery. In our text Jesus is directing everyone to find true happiness, but where he points us is a completely shocking direction. What he says is total foolishness to the world, and many professing Christians often misunderstand it.

Exposition: Self-denial: how pleasing God instead of self leads to true satisfaction

I.          The Lord calls us to satisfying joy.

            A.         A proper approach to Christ’s call to self-denial

                        1.         Self-denial is not an end in itself, as if the personal self is something terrible that we must get rid of. Since we are made in the image of God and our personal self is formed by him (Jer 1:5), our purpose is to show God’s glory as totally satisfied and happy (Ps 115:3; Rm 11:36; cf. Mt 25:21,23; 1 Tm 1:11; 6:15). We cannot do this if we are miserable and unhappy people.

                        2.         Self-denial is the call to return to our purpose. The human problem is that because of our rebellion against God, we do not want to fulfill our purpose as God’s image bearers. We would rather seek satisfaction in pursuing our own ways (Is 53:6), and so we make substitutes for God. We worship and serve created things (Rm 1:25), and in doing so turn from our purpose and become dissatisfied.

Illustration: People without God are the proverbial fish out of water, thrashing desperately to find satisfying water, but unable to do so.

Point: The call of Christ is a call to personal recovery. The intent of the call is to help you.

Illustration: Have you ever seen a child with a splinter in his or her hand? They try to avoid the loving help of the adult who wants to remove the splinter that is causing the pain. Don’t be like that child. The good God wants to remove the ruinous splinter from you.

            B.         An appreciation of Christ’s call to self-denial

                        1.         Your soul or life is your most precious possession. Everyone loves himself or herself, even if he or she has low self-esteem. People will make widely divergent choices because of self-love. As Pascal observed long ago, self-love will make one man go to war and make another man avoid war.

                        2.         In this call Jesus appeals to our God-given desire to save our lives, which must include true satisfaction or happiness. Who would want to save his life for the purpose of more suffering and frustration? No, Christ wants us to seek joy. He wants us to deny ourselves for the purpose of finding lasting and surpassing joy.

Illustration: Remember the parable of the treasure hidden in the field (Mt 13:44). Jesus calls us to sell everything and then joyfully to buy eternal treasure.

II.         The Lord presents himself as the way to satisfying joy

            A.         Only followers of Christ can gain the satisfaction that God offers. Jesus breaks conversion down into three parts to help us understand what becoming his follower or disciple means.

                        1.         Self-denial is the part of conversion in which we realize that doing things to please self and thinking that we can determine what is best for ourselves is at the root of our problem. We come to see that the pursuit of sin is what is separating us from God and ruining us.

                        2.         Taking up the cross is the decision to seek the end of our sinful pursuits. Here we must understand what the cross means. A. W. Tozer used to talk about the “old cross” and the “new cross”. Christians have glamorized the cross and fail to see its offensive nature. The Romans wouldn’t take about the cross in polite speech, but used substitute words to refer to it.

                                    a.         The cross was the instrument of a hideous, terrifying, painful way of death. To take up the cross was to be on the path to execution.

                                    b.         This makes “taking up the cross” the ultimate form of self-denial. It is saying goodbye forever to other ways of satisfaction to rely on God in Christ alone for all my joy, hope and peace. In other words, I trust him to “save my life”.

                        3.         Following Christ is the culmination of the first two aspects. Jesus must be the focus, the center, the aim, and the passion of our inner beings. God the Father purposed to bring honor to his Son through the wonder of Christ’s redeeming work. God the Holy Spirit lifts up the name of Jesus and draws people to the Savior for new life and peace with God.

Song: “Be the Center”

Jesus, be the center

Be my source, be light, Jesus

Jesus, be the center

Be my song, be my song, Jesus

Be the fire in my heart

Be the wind in my sails

Be the reason that I live, Jesus

III.        Jesus challenges us to gain satisfying joy

            A.         The challenge involves the acceptance that Christ and the gospel are a “package deal”.

                        1.         You can only follow Christ if you believe the good news: that Jesus died for sinners to pay the penalty for sin and that he rose from the dead that we might be right with God. The message of Jesus cannot be separated from the events of history.

                        2.         It is in his death and resurrection that we realize his surpassing worthiness. In the Father’s plan, he was able to do all required to bring the Holy God and sinful people to reconciliation. In the life of the Risen Christ, we have eternal life. Praise him!

            B.         The challenge involves two “megafactors” – two crucial points

                        1.         You will only follow Jesus if you have a change of mind. To risk one’s life on Jesus and the gospel demands a high esteem of his worthiness and all-ability. “You only have one life” is obvious to everyone. Who would want to throw away that one life for nothing?

                        2.         You will only follow Christ if you commit your life to him. You must believe or depend on Christ’s power and faithfulness. Are you convinced in your inner being about him? 2 Tm 1:12

            C.         The challenge involves a continual demand to learn from Christ—to have a mind instructed according to the truth that is in Jesus (Eph 2:20-21). We learn from Christ that he wants our joy and satisfaction (Jn 15:11; 17:13). And so we depend on him.

Point: You will never follow the Lord Jesus Christ unless you have a true sense of the Lord’s glory and worthiness. Otherwise, other things will come and choke out his message (Mk 4:18-19).