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If you looked at the program card before coming tonight, you'll have seen that we call this service the 'Commissioning'. That's generally the kind of thing you do to ships or power stations, and it may have left you wondering, 'Who gets commissioned, and for what?' Well the who is every one of us here who would say 'Jesus is my Lord.' And the for what? Well, here are Jesus' words to his church just after his death and his resurrection from death:

'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations' (Matthew 28.18-19)

So, paddle up the Amazon: Jesus is the rightful Lord of every life in South America. Paddle up the Ganges: Jesus is the rightful Lord of every soul in India. Paddle up the Tyne: Jesus is the rightful Lord of every person you and I see next week. The problem is: they don't know that. And they actually don't want to know that - any more than we did before God turned us round. Which is why in verse 38 Jesus talks about, 'this adulterous and sinful generation.' People who should be living for God but who've broken away to live how they please. Spiritual adulterers. People just like we were before God turned us round. And, verse 38, Jesus says:

'If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man [that is, Jesus himself], will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory, with the holy angels.

So what we're doing tonight is reminding ourselves of Jesus' commission to stand for him and his words in this adulterous and sinful generation. And it doesn't take long in the Christian life to discover how tough that can be. I think of a 12-year old in my room group on a Scripture Union camp one summer. He professed faith. And when his mother collected him at the end of the week, he told her that he'd bought a Bible to read every day. 'How lovely, dear,' I heard her say. 'I just hope you're not going to go religious on us.' He was heading back into a family that was part of 'this adulterous and sinful generation'. I think of one of our students who's come to Christ this year. He told me how this summer he told some of his old school mates he'd become a Christian. And he found it very painful to be laughed off. Or I think of one of our junior doctors wondering how to say that in her view some of the pain-relief procedures on her ward were basically euthanasia, and she didn't want to be involved. 'Me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation.' That's the commission. And it can hurt. It's often said that new believers are the best evangelists. Perhaps many of us were most active in sharing our faith in our early days of believing. Which begs the question: what blunts us along the way? What takes the edge off our fulfilling of the Lord's commission? And I guess what blunts us is getting hurt, or the fear of getting hurt. Or both. It's relatively easy to stand for Jesus and his words here, among believers. In my Quiet Time or in church I'm generally in my right mind as a Christian. It doesn't occur to me to be ashamed of the Lord who died for me and is so good to me. It's not Jesus and his words that gives me problems. It's Jesus and his words 'in this sinful and adulterous generation.' Move outside our Quiet Times, outside our Christian fellowship, and we're hit from all angles by the temptation to be ashamed of the Lord. Because we're afraid of peoples' reactions, afraid of what people will think or say to us or say about us, afraid of being isolated. Basically, afraid of getting hurt. And unless we face up to that fear head, we'll keep ducking the commission to stand for Jesus and his words in this adulterous and sinful generation. We'll aim to avoid getting hurt.. And we'll soon discover that the way to do that is to be a private Christian - keeping quiet, doing our best not to be noticeably different from the people around us. But that is not the way. Jesus never called people to that as an option. And if we're converted people we know in our hearts that that is not how we want to be. So let's turn to Mark chapter 8 for help. How are we to take this commission on board, and to accept the possibility of getting hurt? 2 headings: first, WE NEED TO REPENT OF WANTING A COMFORTABLE LIFE, and secondly, WE NEED TO CARE WHAT JESUS THINKS OF US WHEN HE COMES AGAIN, NOT WHAT OTHERS THINK OF US HERE AND NOW First, WE NEED TO REPENT OF WANTING A COMFORTABLE LIFE (vv 31-34) To want a quiet life is the most natural thing in the world. A few weeks ago I arrived on holiday with three friends who are also Christian workers. We discovered that there was an English family next-door to us. Part of me wanted a quiet life ('I'm on holiday!'); part of me knew that it would be to our shame if we didn't pray and look for an opportunity to get to know them and try to talk about the Lord. (The Lord did indeed provide a lovely opportunity). To want a quiet life is the most natural thing in the world. But in these verses, Jesus says that the only way to a quiet life this side of heaven is to be on man's side and against God. What's happened so far in Mark's Gospel? Well, verse 29 is the end of the first half of Mark. The disciples have been watching Jesus in action for 8 chapters, now, and Peter has just begun to see that you can't put Jesus in the same category as any other human being. Verse 28: he's not just another man speaking for God. He's more than just a man. Verse 29:

'But what about you?' [Jesus] asked. 'Who do you say I am?' Peter answered, 'You are the Christ.' [You're God-come-into-your-world-to-put-things-right. That's lesson 1 of Mark's Gospel: who Jesus is.]

Then, verse 30:

Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him. [Because first, they needed lesson 2. And lesson 2 is what Jesus came to do. Verse 31:] He then began to teach them that the Son of Man [that is, Jesus] must suffer many things, be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.

And for those of us still at the stage of trying to get clear on the Christian message, verse 31 is the most important thing for us to hear tonight. The thing Jesus came to do was to die on the cross. And the Bible says he did so in our place, to face the judgement we deserve on our wrongdoing, so that we could be forgiven back into acceptance with God. The first church I attended kept that truth from me for five years. I was simply told to be good. I was given the impression that I could earn God's acceptance by trying my best. Terribly flattering. But totally false. As far as I remember, no-one ever said, 'You're not good enough. And you cannot work your way back to God by trying harder - as if that would make up for anything; and as if you could ever turn over a new leaf in your own strength. And God's Son had to die for you so you could be forgiven back to him.' No-one ever said that. But when you've understood the 'must' in verse 31, you've understood the Christian message. And then and only then would it be appropriate for you to take communion at a service like this, as an expression that you trust that Jesus died in your place for your sins. 'The Son of man must sufferand be rejected.. and be killed.' Then verse 32:

He spoke plainly about this and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

Why does Peter do that? Well, I guess he'd put two and two together pretty quickly. If my Master is going to suffer and be rejected and killed, what guarantee is there that won't happen to me, as his follower? I don't want to suffer. I don't want to be rejected. I certainly don't want to be killed. That isn't what I signed up for. Lord, you must have made some mistake, here. It's like those times in PE lessons when the teacher chose teams by numbering you off, '1,2,1,2' and you saw that that really hopeless kid was a number two and you desperately tried to number off down the row and position yourself to get a number one. Because no-one wants to be on the losing side. Nor did Peter. He was just like us. He wanted to be liked. He wanted people to laugh at his jokes. He wanted people to say what a nice guy he was. He didn't want to disagree with anyone, or be laughed at, or left out. He didn't want to lose face or lose friends, let alone lose his life. So, verse 32, he took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him. 'Lord, I didn't sign up for suffering or rejection. You must have made some mistake, here.' Verse 33:

But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. 'Get behind me, Satan,' he said. 'You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.

Peter, like us, needed to learn that there are just two sides in this life, and no fence to sit on, in between. There's the side of men following Satan's lead, living as they please without God. That's where we all begin, until God turns us round. And there's the side of God, that Jesus came to turn us back to. The men-following-Satan side has a simple aim in life: to be comfortable in its sin. It wants nothing to remind it that there is a God against whom it's rebelling. It wants no real, fixed standards to trouble its conscience (although it'll talk a lot about morality and 'back to basics'). So no wonder that when the Son of God stepped into his world, he was rejected. Because he hadn't come to make us a little bit better in our sin. He'd come to save us from our sin. He'd come to die on a cross so that the judgement for sin could be lifted from us who deserve it. He'd come to call us to repent of living as if we had the right to live as we pleased, and be reconciled with God before time runs out. And that isn't a message his world wants to hear. And if you're a believer, you'll know it wasn't a message you were able to hear before God opened your ears. And, verse 33, Peter has to learn that there are just two sides. For God and against God. And no fence in between. So that the only way to a quiet life is to be on the side of men. Come to Christ, join his side, and we'll receive the same kinds of reaction he did. And likewise, the only way to be on the side of Christ is to turn our backs on the approval of others. Verses 34:

Then [Jesus] called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said, 'If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.

'He must deny himself'. It's the same word that Mark uses later in the Gospel to describe Peter denying Jesus to save his own face. He denied any commitment to Jesus, denied even recognising him. And Jesus says, 'If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself.' So I must have no commitment to myself. No commitment to my reputation, or to saving face or being thought acceptable. When myself whispers, 'Ian, can't I just have a quiet life?' I refuse to recognise that claim. And Jesus says, 'He must take up his cross.' People taking up their crosses in Jesus' day were on their way to be executed. They were social rejects. They were laughed at and humiliated. And if anyone would follow him, says Jesus, they must in principle accept that kind of treatment as they stand for him and his words in this adulterous and sinful generation. They must be prepared to be right out on a limb, just as Jesus was strung out on a cross, for us. 'If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.' If I am to come after Jesus, the Son of God whom the world rejects, I have to cross those bridges of being prepared for rejection myself. I have to cross the bridge of saying, 'I want to please the Lord Jesus more than I want to please men.' That applies most obviously out there in the non-Christian world. It's the key to biting the bullet and having those conversations we know we ought to have about Christian things, writing those letters we know we ought to write, lending those tapes or books - whatever it is. It's the key to not conforming to the standards around us. I think of various people who've stopped getting drunk since coming to faith. They don't have to utter a word of judgement on their friends' drinking habits. Their new Christian lifestyle says it all. And the friends feel judged. And they react. If we're going speak and live Christianly in the non Christian world,, we have to cross those bridges in verse 34. But there's another application - to the roles we have in church and in our families, which is also part of this commissioning. If we're going to serve Christ as group leaders, or youth leaders, or parents, or whatever it is, we have to cross those bridges in verse 34. Otherwise we'll be out to impress those children, rather than to serve Christ. We'll care more about what our group thinks of us than what Christ thinks of our group, and how they are with him. We won't say the hard truths in explaining the gospel to inquirers. We'll let our groups get away with skirting round challenges in Bible passages. We'll duck raising the hard personal issue with a Christian we're close to and responsible for. We won't help our children to learn to stand as individuals against the peer-pressure around them. Because all the time, we'll be worried about reactions. Paul summed it up when he had to say hard things to the Galatian church: Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I still trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.' (Galatians 1.10) To be a servant of Christ - in the world or in the church - I have to cross those bridges of verse 34. The man-pleaser in me must be denied and put to death. And the man-pleaser in us has many lives. He needs denying and putting to death every day, before every group we lead, before every conversation about the Lord we hope to have, before every sermon I preach- and after. So, that's the first thing: we need to repent of wanting a comfortable life. The only way to have a comfortable life is to please this adulterous and sinful generation. And the only way to please them is to be one of them. Secondly, WE NEED TO CARE WHAT JESUS THINKS OF US WHEN HE COMES AGAIN, NOT WHAT OTHERS THINK OF US HERE AND NOW (vv 35-38) This commission to stand for Jesus and his words in this adulterous and sinful generation is not easy. And the Lord Jesus knows that we need encouragement to accept the cost of it. Which is why verse 35 begins with the word, 'For'. From verse 35 to verse 38, Jesus is encouraging us not to be put off by the cost of following him here and now. We need to get costs into perspective. I've just had 2 weeks' holiday in France and I discovered in the run-up to it that it's more costly in terms of preparations than my usual 'line of least resistance holiday', borrowing a friend's cottage in the Lake District. I discovered I needed a Passport. Then, a Green Card for my car. Then, extended breakdown cover. Medical Insurance. About a week before I left, someone said to me, 'Well, it's a good exchange rate for francs, right now.' It hadn't occurred to me there was the hassle of another currency, as well! And I remember one day, when I'd been dealing with all these things, thinking to myself, 'Why did I let myself be talked into going to France?' Can I say that after a single hour on the beach at Saint Brevin, all those costs had melted away into insignificance. Perspective is a wonderful thing! Here in verse 38 is the most important perspective of all: eternity:

'If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man [ie, Jesus], will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory, with the holy angels.

Jesus is going to come again and we're all going to meet him. You may remember some of the parables that he told about that. For some people, said Jesus there'll be a great welcome: 'Well done, good and faithful servant,' he'll say. For others, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers.' Jesus' words, not mine. And it's not hard to think which of those reactions from Jesus we'd rather get. It's not hard to say whose approval we'll value most on that day - Jesus', or other peoples'. But it's much harder to think clearly like that, down here on the ground. We get faced with ungodly humour at work or school or college. We know it's ungodly; we don't want to join in. But we'd save face just by laughing along. We'd save being out on a limb. Or maybe you've had a conversation about the Princess of Wales. Someone's said to you, 'Well, she did so much good, she must be getting her reward I heaven.' And we know people aren't accepted by God because of their good works. But saying nothing saves trouble, it saves awkwardness, it saves disagreement. It saves cost. But short-term cost in the here and now is just what we need to learn to accept, verse 34. 'Because' or 'for', verse 35:

Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.

The Lord knows that we don't like the cost, we don't want to be losers. So he reminds us that there's a cost both ways. There is a cost in following him. But it's short-term. And it's much smaller than the cost of not following him. In verse 35, he talks about the person who wants to save his life. In other words, he wants to save himself cost in the here and now. So he stays on man's side, rather than on God's. In the here and now he wins man's approval (for what that's worth: don't we actually feel cheap when we've caved into peer-pressure?). But Jesus says 'Whoever wants to save his life will lose it.' The day described in verse 38 will happen. On that day the only big reality in life will be Jesus. All that will matter to us then will be Jesus' approval. And the person who chose against Jesus for a quiet life here and now will lose everything. Jesus is not minimising the cost here and now. But he is putting it into perspective. 'Yes, you lose something now by following me,' he says. 'But you lose far more in the future by staying on man's side.' So staying on man's side cannot be worthwhile. It's a crazy miscalculation of costs. Verse 36:

What good is it for a man to gain the whole world [the approval of everyone, unlimited friends and popularity], yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?

I don't know if you remember the jokes that went round about Skoda cars. 'Why do Skodas have heated rear windows?' Answer: 'To keep your hands warm while your pushing.'And so on. One of my favourites was the one about the man who went into the garage and said, 'Could I have a petrol cap for my Skoda?' And the mechanic thought for a moment and said, 'OK. That sounds like a fair exchange.' And Jesus' point is that nothing is a fair exchange for his approval. Nothing could make up for being turned away on the day of verse 38, with the words 'I never knew you. Away from me.' That cost is a crazy one to pay - and for what gain? A bit of human approval? A quiet life? We do need verse 38 to focus our minds on what we really want. It's so hard to think straight down here on the ground and a verse like this gets it all into focus:

'If 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.

It's crazy to be ashamed of taking Jesus' side if that is the cost at the end of our lives. But it's also crazy to be ashamed of Jesus, full stop. I know we're constantly tempted to be, and that I fall to that temptation. But it is crazy. Why are we ashamed of the Lord Jesus? Why be ashamed of someone who died for me? Why be ashamed of someone as good and trustworthy and committed as the Lord Jesus? I guess we're ashamed not because in our heart of hearts we doubt we've got something wonderful in the Lord Jesus, but because we fear peoples' reaction to him. And we need to learn that if people react negatively to Jesus, it's more of a reflection on them than it is on him. One of my relatives is extremely obese. She's never been able to lose weight. Yet, she has a heart and character of gold. On one occasion we were flying somewhere and she had to ask for a seat-belt extension. The seat-belt extension arrived and it still wasn't long enough. So she called the stewardess back and, in her inimitable way asked, 'Do you have an extension for the extension?' And at moments like that you sometimes sense people looking down on her, maybe laughing quietly to themselves or passing a comment. And for a moment there's that temptation to be ashamed. But what I actually find myself thinking is this: 'You don't know her. You don't know what a heart of gold she has. You don't know what character she has. I couldn't careless what you think of her. In fact your reaction is far more a reflection on you and your shortcomings than it is on her.' And I guess we need to respond like that when we're tempted to be ashamed of the Lord Jesus. The negative reactions of people don't reflect on him; they reflect on them, on their hostility to God, on their lostness and spiritual blindness. And never forget: that's where we were, believers, before God turned us round. The story is told of one of the past curators of the Louvre art gallery in Paris. He overheard a conversation between two people in front of the picture of the Mona Lisa. And these two people were saying to one another that this great painting really wasn't anything special at all. And the curator butted into their conversation and said this: 'It's not you who judge this painting, but this painting that judges you.' In other words, if you can't see greatness in this painting, the fault is with you. And we need to learn to say something similar about the Lord Jesus. If people can't see glory and greatness and goodness in him, if people don't want him, the fault is with them, and their judgement. 'The god of this age [Satan] has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.' (2 Corinthians 4.4) And only God can unblind their eyes - see Mark 8.22-26, and ask yourself why Mark puts that incident just before verses 27-29. So that's our commission: to stand for the Lord Jesus and his words in this adulterous and sinful generation. And in order to do so, we need two things, according to Jesus:

first, we need to repent of wanting a comfortable life; and secondly, we need to care what Jesus thinks of us when he comes again, not what others think of us here and now.

I was talking to one of our first year students the other day. She said that she left church encouraged and strengthened on a Sunday, but was always discouraged to find that her resolve to stand for the Lord got blunted as the week went on. And that is a common experience. It's not easy being a Christian 'in this adulterous and sinful generation'. So how much more we need to hear and act on these words, with which I end:

Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another - and all the more, as you see the Day [the same day as Mark 8.38] approaching. (Hebrews 10.25)