CCECYOUTH.COM

By David Miers.

Part 1 here

JESUS.  The most mocked man in all of history.  If you mock someone who is homosexual you will have stones throne at you from every direction.  Last year a cartoonist in Denmark mocked Mohammad with a drawing in a local newspaper—the result: the death of a number of people in retaliation attacks.

Yet Jesus is mocked every day.  Society doesn’t care less.  Each week there would be a “funny” cartoon mocking a Christian or mocking Jesus in a paper somewhere around Australia.

Below is some graffiti from the 3rd Century.  The Greek words read: ‘Alexamenos worships god’. You can see Alexamenos on the left, worshiping his ‘god’, who is a man with a donkey’s head, hanging on a cross. The donkey-guy is Jesus, and someone is giving Alexamenos a hard time for worshiping someone who was crucified.

Not many people take the death of Jesus seriously.

In 2006 on Madonna’s Confessions tour she finished the show hanging on the cross in a mocking way toward Jesus.

Not many people take the death of Jesus seriously.

It’s almost Easter.

When I speak to students in local high schools—they’re not quite sure if Easter is Jesus birthday or what?  All they care about is getting some chocolate and holidays.

In one sense Easter isn’t any different from any other weekend throughout the year for Christians.  Every weekend as we meet at youth group and church we are reminded of the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus.  BUT Easter is a great time to spend even more time reflecting on it and a great opportunity to talk to others about why they should take Jesus’ death and resurrection seriously.

Last month we looked at Mark chapter 8.  Can you remember?  We said that the big question in the first 8 chapters of Mark was “Who is the man?”  People marveled at Jesus and what he was doing.

In chapter 8 the answer to the question was made clear.  Jesus is the CHRIST.  Not a last name—but a title that tells us something of who Jesus is.  Who is he?  He’s the King that God promised who would come and fix the world.

From this point forward Mark answers 2 questions: 1 What does it mean for Jesus to be the CHRIST? And 2 What will it mean to follow  Jesus?

In Mark 8:31 Jesus immediately answered the first question… what would it mean for him to be the King??  It would mean that he would die and rise again.

Jesus took his death very seriously.  In the Garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14) we see that Jesus is willingly to take upon himself that which we deserve.  We sin.  We reject God’s rule in our life.  Yet Jesus is willing to die and take our punishment upon himself.

Substitution.

This idea has been called substitution.  Like a substitute teacher steps in and takes over your class for the day… JESUS steps in and takes our punishment so that we won’t have to.

How seriously should we take Jesus death?
We shouldn’t mock him like our 3rd Century Graffiti Artist, or Madonna, or the person that sits next to you in Maths!

3 ways we should respond?

1) Trust him. Trust that when he died he died in your place.
2) Love him. Delight in Jesus the one who has saved you from judgment.
3) Be like him.

“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? 38If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”

We don’t become Christians by WHAT we do.  It’s all about what Jesus HAS done.

But one of the ways to respond to the death of Jesus, is to be like him.

Deny yourself.

Take up your cross.

This is what Jesus did.  This is what ALL Christians are called to do.

If you want to follow Jesus.  That’s what Jesus did.  Follow him.

It’s not going to be easy—we’ll be tempted to be ashamed of the cross.  We’ll be tempted to laugh with our friends when The Simpsons makes another joke about Jesus.

What will it look like to deny yourself at school?  At home?  On the internet?  With your boyfriend? On the sporting field?  In your workplace?

J-WALK magazine is all about encouraging you to look at the way that Jesus walked… to trust him… to love him… and to live like him.

Take His death seriously:
Deny yourself.
Take up your cross.
Follow him.
Do the j-walk

We’d love to hear your comments… ccecyouth.com