Follow me

[Tellyontellyon]

Jesus said, take up your cross and follow me.
What are we being instructed to do?

 

[Albion]

Jesus said, take up your cross and follow me.
What are we being instructed to do?

Adhere to his moral code and trust in him to provide for the followers' lives after physical death.

 

[Jesus is my Superhero]

Along with what Albion wrote, walk by faith and not by sight and seek first His Kingdom and righteousness, and all else that you are in need of will be provided. Not what you want, but what you need. It is through hardships that obedience is learned.

 

[Ligurian]

Jesus said, take up your cross and follow me.
What are we being instructed to do?

Be thou faithful unto death

Matthew 16:24-26 Then said Jesus unto His disciples, If any will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it. 26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

Revelation 2:9-11 I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not but the synagogue of Satan. 10 Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. 11 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.

I know thy works

Revelation 3:8-11 I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept My word, and hast not denied My name. 9 Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. 10 Because thou hast kept the word of My patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. 11 Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.

hupomeno = hupo and meno; to stay behind, i.e. remain; figuratively, to undergo, i.e. bear (trials), have fortitude, persevere:--abide, endure, (take) patient(-ly), suffer, tarry behind. meno = to stay, abide, continue, dwell, endure, be present, remain, stand.

John 15:3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me. 15:7 If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

John 8:31-32 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in My word, [then] are ye My disciples indeed; 32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

Matthew 7:14 Because strait [is] the gate, and narrow [is] the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

thlibo = to crowd, afflict, narrow, throng, suffer tribulation, trouble.
___________________________
This is the Gospel of the Kingdom.

 

[dqhall]

Jesus said, take up your cross and follow me.
What are we being instructed to do?

According to church history and tradition, most of the 12 disciples were martyred.

I read Ecclesiastical History, by Eusebius c 325 AD. According to Eusebius, Mark the author of the second Gospel was martyred in Egypt.

When and how did the Twelve Apostles die? – Amazing Bible Timeline with World History

 

[Tellyontellyon]

According to church history and tradition, most of the 12 disciples were martyred.

But what does that mean a Christian should do today? Is it a literal death?

 

[ViaCrucis]

Jesus said, take up your cross and follow me.
What are we being instructed to do?

Jesus alone carries His cross, the literal one He took to Golgotha to be crucified on. As followers, disciples, of this same Jesus our own lives of discipleship will mean we each have our own cross to carry. We can call this the cross of discipleship, it's the reality that in this world we are going to have troubles.

What shape or form or circumstances will be our cross is going to be different for every person. Nobody is the same, everyone has their own life that is unique to themselves. Following Jesus, day to day, navigating the world, that's what discipleship means.

In the Lutheran tradition we are reminded that "this life is a cross". This life is not a bed of flower petals, it's a cross. The Christian life is not about having our "best life now" as some less-reputable clergy have attempted to say. This life is about living in the trenches of ordinary human life, loving and serving our neighbor, to be what Jesus called salt and light, a city shining on a hill. To a be a people who are remarkable for their unremarkability, an ordinary human life of caring for one another and for the least of these in our midst.

That the Christian life consists in two things: Life before God through faith, and life before our fellow man and the whole world by love. In a sense these two things could be seen as the vertical dimension (Coram Deo, us before God) and the horizontal dimension (Coram Mundus, us before the world)--that is the life of the Christian, faith and love. The cross is carried because faith and love are hard. Jesus says that His way is difficult, it's easy to live for ourselves, it is much more difficult to live in, with, and for one another.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[dqhall]

But what does that mean a Christian should do today? Is it a literal death?

Follow Jesus.

 

[Jesus is my Superhero]

But what does that mean a Christian should do today? Is it a literal death?

It is to put to death the sin in our selves. The death of the natural self, which is seeking to exalt itself continuously in the old man which has existed since before the in-dwelling of the Holy Spirit. For some Christians, martyrdom will be part of the process of following Jesus. Think of the Christians beheaded by ISSIS on the beach several years ago.

 

[ViaCrucis]

But what does that mean a Christian should do today? Is it a literal death?

Living in a hostile and oppressive culture and empire can mean facing death when what you believe is punishable by death. And so the cross of discipleship can mean death. It meant death for the martyrs who died at the hands of the Roman authorities during times of persecution.

But that doesn't mean following Jesus means we seek out our death, that is morbid and contrary to Christian teaching. It's hard to love your neighbor if you're dead. But death may result in some circumstances, because we live in a world such as ours where violent and power-hungry human beings run the show.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[1watchman]

Jesus said, take up your cross and follow me.
What are we being instructed to do?

Simply, we are asked to receive the Lord Jesus and be devoted to Him --please read John 3; John 5:39-40; John 14; Acts 4:12; Romans 8; etc. We need to hear the Lord Jesus speaking to us by His Word; and then by RECEIVING Him into our heart as Saviour and Lord. That is the ONLY way to come to God: our Creator (note John 14:2) for everlasting blessing in Heaven. It is a RELATIONSHIP, not just a belief!
The best way to know our God is to read His Word to us in the Gospels. Then one can learn about the universal Church in the several Epistles. I hope you will do that and not just keep wondering, friend!

 

[Clare73]

Jesus said, take up your cross and follow me.
What are we being instructed to do?

To deny our tendency to sin, which can cause suffering, of which the cross is the symbol.