Take Up Your Cross and Follow Jesus | The True Cost of Discipleship

What does it really mean to take up your cross and follow Jesus? In this challenging Christian teaching, Gene Edwards examines the cost of discipleship, the denial of self, surrender to Christ, and Jesus’ radical call to follow Him—even at the cost of our own lives.

Beginning with Jesus’ words in Matthew 16, Gene challenges the familiar Christian understanding of the cross. Jesus told His disciples that anyone who wanted to follow Him must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Him. Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, while whoever loses his life for Christ’s sake will find it.

What did those words mean to the first disciples?

Gene argues that the cross should not be understood merely as a religious symbol or simply as a picture of suffering. To the people who first heard Jesus, it was an instrument of death. Seen from that perspective, Christ’s invitation to “take up your cross” becomes a startling picture of the true cost of Christian discipleship.

This message explores:

• What it means to deny yourself and follow Jesus
• The biblical meaning of taking up your cross
• The cost of becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ
• Surrendering both outward possessions and the inward life of self
• Dying to self and allowing God to work within us
• The willingness of the early disciples to suffer for the gospel
• What following Jesus might require of believers today

Gene Edwards challenges believers to recover the seriousness of Christ’s original call. Following Jesus is more than agreeing with Christian doctrine or adopting a religious way of life. It is a surrender of ourselves to Christ and a willingness to let Him deal deeply with the soul.

Near the end of the message, Gene turns the challenge into a prayer: that the Lord would give His followers a willingness to surrender their lives outwardly and allow the work of the cross to deal with their souls inwardly.

This is a demanding message about Christian discipleship, surrender, dying to self, and what it means to truly follow Jesus.