You can’t be a Christian and not carry a cross. It is a part and parcel of following Jesus. It’s part of going after him. It is an essential part of being a Christian. The cross is not just something that we believe. It is something that we carry. It is something we pick up as we follow Jesus day after day. That’s why we aren’t just Christians, we are Crosstians – because that’s what we do. We carry a cross. Yes, Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said, that when Christ bids a person come and follow, he bids him come and die. It’s a cross-bearing thing to which he calls us. He calls us to come and die. But in dying to ourselves, we rise in him.

As we listen to Jesus teach us about following him, we’ll make some special application of carrying our cross to our mission and ministry here. We’ll be looking at Mark 8:27-38.