It’s not about me, yet it is about me. It isn’t about us, yet it is about us.  “Say what?” That’s probably what the disciples where also thinking when Jesus said, “..let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”  This sermon, utilizing Mark 8:3-37, explores the difference between being a follower of Jesus and a disciple of Jesus; how we must remove ourselves from the center of our concerns in order to love more extravagantly and to serve others more freely.  What does it mean to you to be a Christian?

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Mark 8:31-37

8:31 Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.

8:32 He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

8:33 But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

8:34 He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

8:35 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.

8:36 For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?

8:37 Indeed, what can they give in return for their life?