Snapshot Series: "Meaning of Life"

Snapshot20 Mark 8:34-38

Community Group Questions
1. What areas of life do you find it hard to deny yourself?
2. What areas do you struggle with being obedient to the Lord?
3. What was the hardest situation in which being obedient to the Lord tested your commitment?
4. Are you continuing in a particular sin because you are stubborn?
5. Do you have a situation in life in which you have been arrogantly telling God what He should do for you?
6. Think about the people around you that are not Christians, where do they find meaning in life?

Vrs 34 Meaning of life according to Jesus
Deny self- William Lane says it this way "Jesus stipulated that those who wish to follow Him must be prepared to shift their center of gravity in their lives from a concern for self to the will of God"

It means we live to glorify God not ourselves. Once we start focusing in ourselves that is when the system breaks down.

Self-denial is not easy.
-It means that when someone wrongs you instead of trying to figure out how you can hurt them you figure out how you can help them.
-It means that when you have things for yourself to do you may have to put those things aside because you need to do something for someone else.
-It means giving up your rights for the rights of others.

Sometimes self denial on behalf of the Lord may end in death.

A trial court in Iran has issued its final verdict, ordering a Christian pastor to be put to death for leaving Islam and converting to Christianity, according to sources close to the pastor and his legal team.
Supporters fear Youcef Na-dark-hani, a 34-year-old father of two who was arrested over two years ago on charges of apostasy, may now be executed at any time without prior warning, as death sentences in Iran may be carried out immediately or dragged out for years.

Most of us would agree that we would not want our self denial to end in physical death especially when you have a wife and two little ones.

=putting the will of Jesus before our own will.

Take up Cross- Positively, one must take up his cross, decisively saying yes to God’s will and way. Cross-bearing was not an established Jewish metaphor. But the figure was appropriate in Roman-occupied Palestine. It brought to mind the sight of a condemned man who was forced to demonstrate his submission to Rome by carrying part of his cross through the city to his place of execution. Thus “to take up one’s cross” was to demonstrate publicly one’s submission/obedience to the authority against which he had previously rebelled. BKC

=Live in submission to Jesus, being committed

What Jesus is saying is... listen to my will not your own will.

The obvious question that each one of us then has is...what is God's will for me?
And He gives us a simple answer.

Follow Me -is a present imperative "let him keep following me" The disciples were following the crowd was following.

Jesus followed the Fathers Will to death. GOSPEL

Inevitably here it was happens...
-We do not deny because we are stubborn. rebellion
-We do not submit because we are arrogant. I can do it by myself.

The test if you are following.
Is there a sin that I continue to commit because I am stubborn.
Is there an area in life in which I am so arrogant that I will not submit.

Bottom line is Jesus is saying deny yourself and submit to me and then you will keep following me.

This type of life to the outside world does not sound fun or seem glamorous. Maybe this contributes to why people look for other purposes in life...this one seems lame.

Vrs 35-37 What is this life worth and what is the real purpose of it. Most people would agree that having a purpose in life is worth everything. They may not say so but when asked what the meaning of life is the majority state things that have some kind of purpose.

In the...Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 
Vol. 43 No. 1, Winter 2003

WHAT EMINENT PEOPLE HAVE SAID
ABOUT THE MEANING OF LIFE This was a study based on 230 quotes about the meaning of life from eminent/famous people.

1. To enjoy or experience life. Enjoy the moment,? the ?journey.? This was the most frequently endorsed theme (by 17% of the sample). Ralph Waldo Emerson encouraged his readers ?to laugh often and much? and ?to appreciate beauty?

2. To love, help, or serve others. 13% Einstein stated that ?Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile

3. Life is a mystery. 13% of the sample, Stephen Hawking “If we find an answer to that (why we and the universe exist), it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason—for then we would know the mind of God.”



4. Life is meaningless. 11% of the sample, George Bernard Shaw once likened life to a disease, ?and the only difference between one man [sic] and another is the stage of the disease at which he lives?

5. To serve or worship God and/or prepare for the next life. In total, 11% of the sample endorsed the theme. For example, Muhammad Ali referred to life as “only a preparation for the eternal home, which is far more important than the short pleasures that seduce us here” Desmond Tutu said that in life we should “give God glory by reflecting His beauty and His love. That is why we are here and that is the purpose of our lives”

6. Life is a struggle. 8% of the sample, And Benjamin Disraeli reflected that ?youth is a blunder, manhood a struggle, old age a regret? .



7. To contribute to something that is greater than ourselves. 6% of the sample, the philosopher Will Durant believed that the meaning of life ?lies in the chance it gives us to produce or contribute to something greater than ourselves.?

8. To become self-actualized. To develop or ?evolve? 6% of the sample, Robert Louis Stevenson argued that ?to become what we are capable of becoming is the only end of life?

9. To create your own meaning. 5% of the sample, Grandma Moses stated ?Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be?

10. Life is absurd or a joke. 4% of the sample Charlie Chaplin once described life as ?a tragedy when seen in close-up but a comedy in the long shot?

What the world says this life is for... The teaching that Jesus is conveying is that if you spend your entire life chasing something that is not truth you miss the truth that leads to salvation.

You may have gained by the worlds standards... but through it you lost. Not only did you lose but lost the most important and the only thing that matters for eternity...your soul.

For example: Spend your whole life focusing in on enjoyment in that you may miss the truth of Jesus because statements like what He just made "take up your cross" may not seem enjoyable.

Spend your whole life thinking life is meaningless you will ignore those who come teaching there is meaning.

Spend your whole life trying to create meaning you will ignore the true meaning.

Vrs 38 This verse connects back to verse 35 in saying those who do not trust. Who you trust in this life has everything to do with your judgment into the next life. The use of the word ashamed here carries the idea that a person cannot bare to be frowned upon by the world to look into or trust Christ.

They in turn are trying to preserve or save their life but as Jesus says they will lose it.