1. Our Lord said in Matthew 16:24 (and also in Mark 8:34 and Luke 9:23), “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”
2. The word “will” here means, “If any man is determined to come after me…”
3. “If any man desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross (notice: his cross) and follow me.”
4. In Luke 14:27, our Lord said, “And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple.”
5. The Christian life is more than getting baptized and joining a church.
6. It is more than agreeing to a set of doctrines or adopting a code of conduct.  These things are very important, and they have their place, but the Christian life is much more than that.
7. The apostle Paul put it this way: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21).
8. “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory” (Col. 3:4).
9. The Christian life is a person, and that person is the Lord Jesus Christ.
10. Therefore, our Lord says in Matthew 16:24, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”  We are to follow our Lord, wherever He leads us.
11. And some day, He will lead us home to heaven.  Our Lord said in John 14:3, “I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”
12. Our chief business and aim is to follow Christ, but there are difficulties and obstacles along the way.
13. There is the world, the flesh, and the devil (Matt. 16:23).
14. The world has its endless attractions and distractions, and is always an obstacle for the Christian who desires to get close to God (Matt. 16:26).
15. Self stands in the way, and so our Lord says, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself…” (Matt. 16:24).
16. Notice that denying self must come first. This means repudiating self.  It means ceasing to insist upon my own rights. It means ceasing to consider my own comforts, my own ease, my own pleasure, my own aggrandizement, my own benefits.
17. A pastor friend of mine was badly hurt by some unkind and disloyal church members.  He was thinking of resigning his church, and he called his father (also a pastor) for advice.
18. His father said, “You are dead.  Why should a dead man be bothered by unkind church members?”
19. George Muller said, “There was a day when I died, utterly died, died to George Muller and his opinions, preferences, tastes and will; died to the world; its approval or censure; died to the approval or blame of even my brethren and friends; and since then I have studied only to show myself approved unto God.”
20. Denying self means being done with self. Self must be repudiated, and must be done with.  As long as self is on the throne, then there is no room for Jesus.
21. And if the Lord Jesus Christ is not on the throne, you will never have the joy of the Lord.
22. Following Christ means to take up one’s cross. “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross” (Matt. 16:24).
23. The cross represents salvation from the penalty of sin (Matt. 16:21).  It also represents victory over the power of indwelling sin.
24. “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. (Rom. 6:6, 7).
25. Some think the cross represents some difficult trial they must endure. But that is not what our Lord is saying here in Matthew 16:24. 
26. In fact, the word “cross” is never used that way in the New Testament.  This is not a cross that is laid upon us – it is a cross which must be “taken up” (16:24).

I. THE CROSS REPRESENTS THE WORLD’S HATRED FOR GOD.

1. The cross represents the world’s hatred for God, and for God’s people.  It was a shameful way to die. Only despised criminals were hung on a cross.
2. Think about it: the world hated Jesus so much they beat Him, whipped Him, spit upon Him, and nailed Him to a cruel cross.
3. If He was to return today, they would try to do the same thing over again, but they will not be able to (cf. II Thess. 1:7-9).
4. Our Lord warned His disciples of the world’s fierce hatred (cf. John 15:18-25).
5. The cross represents the reproach of the world. Obedient Christians have learned to separate from the world, and this has stirred up hatred from the world.
6. Separation from the world antagonizes them.  We are not going in their direction and they bitterly resent that.
7. Our Lord said there are only two roads.  There is the narrow way, which leads unto life eternal (“and few there be that find it”), and then there is the broad way, “that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat” (Matt. 7:13, 14).
8. The world is angry because we have gotten off the broad way, the popular way, the sinful way.  This bothers them very much.
9. The world hates us because it hates our Lord, and this terrible hatred was manifested at the cross in a very vivid way.
10. The reproach of the world becomes very real when we decide to follow the Lord.  For many of us it started when we followed the Lord in believer’s baptism.
11. Sometimes their hatred flares up because we do not attend their worldly parties, or laugh at their dirty jokes, or listen to their terrible music, or watch their filthy movies, or go along with their false religion.
12. If we are following Christ closely the way we are supposed to, we can be sure the world will hate us for it.  The apostle Paul said, “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (II Tim. 3:12).
13. In the Bible, the devil is called “the god of this world.” Andrew Murray said, “The believer who desires to share in the victory over Satan ‘through the blood of the Lamb’ must be a fighter. He must take pains to understand the character of his enemy. He must allow himself to be taught by the Spirit through the Word what the secret cunning of Satan is, which is called in Scripture ‘the depths of Satan,’ by which he so often blinds and deceives men. He must know that this strife is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Eph. 6:12).
14. The book of Galatians deals extensively with the reproach of the cross.  Paul asks in Galatians 5:11, “And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? then is the offence of the cross ceased.”
15. “As many as desire to make a fair shew in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ” (Galatians 6:12).
16. Note that these Scriptures are referring to persecution from religious people.
17. Our Lord said in John 16:2, “They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.”
18. Katharine Jefferts Schori is the Episcopal Church’s so-called “presiding bishop.”  She recently called salvation a “great heresy.” She defined this heresy as the belief that “we can be saved as individuals, that any of us alone can be in right relationship with God.”
19. The apostle Paul would not agree with this apostate lady bishop.  He said, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Rom. 10:9).
20. Katharine Jefferts Schori hates those who preach the Gospel.  She has rejected the Gospel, and has replaced it with homosexual marriage and other abominations.

II. THE CROSS REPRESENTS ABSOLUTE SURRENDER TO GOD.

1. Just as our Lord voluntarily went to the cross, we too must voluntarily surrender to the will of God (John 10:17, 18).
2. Philippians 2:8 says our Lord “humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”
3. First Peter 2:21 says, “Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps.”
4. This can be difficult, but once the decision is made there is great peace in the soul.  “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:1, 2).
5. Therefore, the cross stands for obedience, consecration, and surrender.
6. That is why our Lord said in Luke 14:27, “Whosoever doth not bear his cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple.”
7. The cross represents a life sacrificed unto God – a life of absolute surrender.

III. THE CROSS REPRESENTS THE LOVE OF GOD (JOHN 3:16).

1. What an interesting contrast – the cross represents the hatred of the world, but it also represents the great love of God.
2. Romans 5:8 says, “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
3. Many years ago, Napoleon’s soldiers were cleaning out an old underground prison used by the Spaniards during the Inquisition.  They found the skeleton of a prisoner, with a chain still attached to his ankle bone.
4. Next to this prisoner, they saw etched into the wall a cross.  This cross had been cut into the rock wall with a sharp piece of metal.
5. Above the cross was the Spanish word for “height.”  Below the cross was the Spanish word for “depth.”  On the right side of the cross: the word for “length,” and on the left side, “breadth.”
6. “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God” (Eph. 3:17-19).
7. First John 3:16 says, “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives.”
8. That is the true message of the cross. We are called unto fellowship with Christ. He died that we might live, and we have to die to self so that we may live (Matt. 16:25).
9. This is a call to discipleship.  This is not a message for sinners.  Sinners must believe the Gospel in order to be saved.
10. Then after they are saved, our Lord calls them to a life of discipleship (Matt. 16:24-27).
11. Isaac Watts, in his beautiful hymn, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,” said:

When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.
 
Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God!
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.
 
See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
 
His dying crimson, like a robe,
Spreads o’er His body on the tree;
Then I am dead to all the globe,
And all the globe is dead to me.
 
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

12. It is amazing to me how some Christians can sing this song.  Perhaps they are not really thinking of the words as they sing.
13. Some Christians live only for themselves.  They live self-centered lives, thinking only think of their own welfare, their own comforts, their own advantages, and so on.
14. But our Lord warns us that this kind of selfish, shallow life is going to be lost forever (Matt. 16:25).
15. The cross represents the love of God. If you love God, then you will obey Him.  Jesus said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15).

CONCLUSION:

1. During WWI and II, there was a custom that if a family lost a son in the war, they would put a star in their window.
2. One night a father was walking through the streets with his small son, and the little boy asked him about the stars. The father explained, “They gave their son, and he died.”
3. The little boy noticed several houses with stars, and he considered their great sacrifice.
4. Then the little boy looked up and saw a great star shining in the sky, and he said, “Father, look!  God must have given His Son.”