Following Jesus on the Road to the Cross
There’s a common question people ask to spark inspiration:
“If you were to die tomorrow, how would you live today?”
That’s not a bad question. But here’s a better one:
If you were to die today, how would you live tomorrow?
That only makes sense if we understand what lies on the other side of death. And that’s exactly what Jesus begins to teach his disciples in Mark 8:27–38 as they follow him on the road to the cross.
Everything in Mark’s gospel up to this point builds to this moment. Jesus has performed miracles. He has taught with authority. He has invested in his disciples. And now he brings them to a decision.
You and I must make that same decision.
1) Determine Who Jesus Is and What He Came to Do
On the road to Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asks his disciples,
“Who do people say that I am?”
They answer: John the Baptist. Elijah. One of the prophets.
Then he asks the real question:
“But who do you say that I am?”
Peter answers correctly:
“You are the Christ.”
Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah. The one promised in the Scriptures. The Son of God.
But then Jesus explains what that means. The Christ must suffer many things. He will be rejected. He will be killed. And after three days, he will rise again.
Peter rebukes him. Jesus rebukes Peter.
“Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
That’s the tension. The disciples wanted victory without suffering. A crown without a cross. A Messiah who would delay death, not defeat it.
We still struggle with the same thing.
You cannot call Jesus merely a good teacher. As C.S. Lewis pointed out, that option is not available. Either he is a lunatic, a liar, or Lord. He claimed to be the Christ. He predicted his death and resurrection. He did not leave room for polite admiration.
So the question stands:
Who do you say that Jesus is?
And do you understand what he came to do?
He came to suffer. To be rejected. To be killed. And to rise again.
That is the gospel.
2) Deny Yourself, Take Up Your Cross, and Follow Jesus
After explaining his mission, Jesus turns to the crowd and says:
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”
This is not an invitation to casual Christianity.
Self-denial is the release of self-determination and the embrace of obedience and dependence upon the Messiah. It says, “I am not my own.”
And then comes the part we often sanitize:
Take up your cross.
Our idea of the cross is too clean. Too decorative. Something nice to look at, but not something to carry.
But in the first century, the cross was an instrument of execution. It was humiliation. It was suffering. It was death.
Jesus is saying:
Come after me knowing where I’m headed.
“For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.”
Everything is a trade.
You may have all this world.
Or you may have Jesus.
“What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?”
When you take up your cross to follow Jesus, your life changes.
Reputation stops running your life.
You tell the truth when it hurts.
You forgive when you’d rather fight.
You give generously, not comfortably.
You confess your sin quickly.
You choose obedience over optics.
You endure being misunderstood.
You loosen your grip on comfort.
You make long-term decisions with eternity in view.
That is what it looks like to follow Jesus on the road to the cross.
3) Don’t Be Ashamed of Jesus or His Words
Jesus ends with a warning:
“Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
There are two ways to live.
You can live a life of self-sacrifice, following Jesus and living according to his words.
Or you can live a life of self-preservation, ashamed of who Jesus is and what he came to do.
In the Bible Belt, shame doesn’t usually look like persecution. It sounds like this:
“Don’t be too Christian.”
Don’t actually believe what the Bible says.
Don’t talk about Jesus in normal conversation.
Don’t pray out loud.
Don’t shape your schedule around church.
Don’t confess your sin.
Don’t hold convictions.
Don’t share the gospel.
Don’t deny yourself.
That is the subtle pressure. A decorative cross is acceptable. A carried cross is not.
But Jesus makes it clear: if you are ashamed of him and his words now, he will be ashamed of you when he returns in glory.
So you must decide.
Will you follow him without shame?
The Cross and Your Pursuit of Christ
Here’s the main idea:
How you perceive the cross of Christ directly impacts how closely you pursue him.
If the cross is clean and distant, you will keep Jesus at a distance.
If the cross is what saves your soul, you will take up your own and follow him.
The gospel is this: you can be saved through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But that salvation calls you to repent of your sin, believe in him, and follow him without shame.
There are many who live in what some call “the miserable middle.” They avoid obvious sin, but they never fully follow Jesus. They are not living for the world, but they are not living for Christ either.
But Jesus does not call us to the middle.
He calls us to the road to the cross.
So I’ll leave you with the same question:
If you were to die today, how would you live tomorrow?
Will you set your mind on the things of man and forfeit your soul?
Or will you determine who Jesus is, deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow him?
That is the decision before you.
You can listen to this sermon in its entirety on our YouTube page.