COME AND DIE
George Butterfield
February 23, 1997
A. How blessed we are to be part of this great church. [Mention the comment Gailyn VanRheenen made at the ACU Lectureship about the fact that the mission effort of the Bentleys in Tanzania is the most significant and effective work in our brotherhood today.]
B. I believe that in baptism we are called by God to ministry in the body of Jesus Christ. It is the general ordination ceremony of the believer. Jesus calls us to follow him and baptism is the public statement of our desire to do so. I also believe that God calls individuals to specific ministries in the local church. Today we have the installation service for Steve Dye, our new college minister. Steve has been called to Singing Oaks by our elders who worked closely with an excellent search committee, but let us not forget that it is the Holy Spirit, working through the body, who offers the call of Jesus to Steve to come.
C. Our text for this brief sermon this morning is Mark 8:31-9:1. It is so appropriate for this occasion because of Jesus' clarion call to his disciples. Deitrich Bonhoeffer once said that, "When Jesus calls a man, he bids him come and die."
1. That is the call we answered when we became disciples.
2. And that is the call Steve answers this morning as he is set apart for Christian service in this church.
I. The Minister's Temptation.
A. Vv. 31-33-
1. Mark tells us of Jesus' temptation by Satan in the wilderness. But he doesn't give us specifics. Here in this text we see one of Jesus' temptations.
2. Peter and the disciples want a king, a royal Messiah. But they don't want Isaiah's Suffering Servant.
3. Ministers are tempted in this same way.
a. One of the saddest things I see with ministers is that many of the ones who continue to serve churches over a number of years develop the habit, for the sake of longevity in ministry, of just going along. We start out with vim, vigor and vitality but the prophetic edge that we have is beaten down.
b. How does this happen? Often quite gradually and subtlely.
(1) The leaders of the church or the leaders of our ministry decide to go in a direction that we believe is wrong. And we know that there is a risk associated with saying, "This is not the way of the cross but the way of compromise." The tempter say, "Just go along and get along. There will be another occasion for you to take a stand."
(2) We have a problem with a person in the congregation. Instead of going to them and dealing head on with the problem with all humility and love, we just work around them. The tempter says, "Avoid that person. They're trouble" So, we avoid the cross and the opportunity for both of us to grow.
(3) We are taught to confess our sins to one another. But the tempter says, "If they know your sins, they'll reject you as a minister." So we model a Christian life of distrust and phoniness.
(4) In essence, the tempter says, "You don't need the cross. You can go straight to glory, avoid the pain and the shame."
c. Jesus says that the minister must set his mind on "divine things and not human things." Too many of our manuals for ministers and our manuals for how to grow churches can be summarized simply as "setting your mind on 'human things.'"
(1) Jesus bids us "come and die."
(2) Ministers are frequently trained to "come and get along."
B. Don't misunderstand: I'm not calling for servants of Christ to become insufferable, know-it-alls who are constantly doing everything in their power to irritate everyone around them.
1. But there is a prophetic side to our ministry. And we must fulfill it if we would be faithful to Christ. But there will be many temptations to just get by, go along, don't rock the boat.
2. There is some very important language in the ordination service in which the congregation is asked, "Do you pledge to love this brother and view him as our partner in ministry, and not as our employee?"
a. This is an important question because the purse strings can become Satan's tool to muzzle a minister.
b. And a man of God must say, "Get behind me, Satan."
C. When Jesus calls a man, he bids him come and die.
II. The Minister's Prize.
A. The faithful servant finds and saves his life and is acknowledged by Jesus when our Lord comes in the glory of his father with the holy angels.
B. But how does this happen? When Jesus calls a man, he bids him come and die.
1. It is through denying one's self that you find yourself.
2. It is through losing your life that you find it.
3. It is through bearing the shame of the cross that one demonstrates that they are not ashamed of Jesus and his words.
C. This can be so hard to understand since the cross has been so sanitized.
1. Perhaps you have heard the story William Willomon tells along this line. He is the minister for the church that meets on the Duke University campus. One Monday morning he received a call from a woman in the congregation who was really upset. It seems that there had been an outdoor play or some event on the campus which required the construction of some gallows. These were close to the church building and had not been removed by Sunday morning. She complained about having to go to church and drive past those gallows. The irony of this was not lost on Willomon. Here was a woman who would wear a cross on a chain around her neck and attend a church that had a cross on the outside and crosses on the inside but those crosses were not disgusting symbols of shame and death like those gallows.
2. The minister is called to bear shame and reproach for Jesus.
a. This can happen among the brethren.
b. This can happen on a college campus.
c. Being ashamed of Jesus and his words can cause us to reject the cross.
Conclusion
A. Brothers and sisters, when Jesus calls a person, he bids them come and die.
B. Steve is being officially and formally called today to serve this church. The temptation to avoid the cross will come.
C. But isn't this the case for all of us? Don't we frequently want easy, painless religion?
1. We sing, "I did it my way."
2. We sing, "I've gotta be me."
3. But when Jesus calls a person, he bids them come and die.
D. Today, if you hear his voice, harden not your heart.