The Cost of Discipleship

Introduction

Try to envision this scene with me:

The wonder of the barbeque beyond the missional effort that is accomplished with the funds we raise is the unity, the comradery and fellowship the church enjoys. The bonding period is such a blessing. And one of our takes advantage of that bonding and ask us all to go with him skydiving.

One of our dear brothers in our midst has skydived. He asks all of us to go with him down to South Alabama to expereince the thrill with him. We enjoy the road travel, we enjoy the good meal at Logan’s in Troy and the laughter and the laughter and all the anticipation of the thrill that’s coming. But 50 miles out most of us begin to squirm. We wonder what we have gotten ourselves into. We even get to the little rural airport and the instructor puts on our parachute and walks us through with fine detail the instruction and safety measures. There some that begin to turn pale and have cotton mouth. His own wife must support the cause because everyone else has and she has passed out as we take our first steps on the tarmac. Finally, the time comes to get in the plane and many of us must be helped into the plane from the exhaustion of anxiousness. Others are feeling dehydrated from sheer nerves. We are on the plane, the parachute is on, our knees are knocking and there may be some that have lost control of bodily functions. The time finally comes and we tell the instructor, give us a second, give us a second, they attempt to push, and three people could not get your arm to break loose from the door of the frame, “jump, I can’t jump, jump, I can’t jump”.

What is the moral of the story? It is real easy to say being caught up in the spirit of comradery that, “oh yes”, “I would love to skydive with you”, but its another thing to jump out of that plane.

Oh dearly beloved, we will learn this morning that in some aspects, the surrender of the Holy Spirit to choose to be born again is one matter. It is another matter to be a sold out disciple of Jesus Christ. For you see, being a real disciple of Christ comes at a cost.

Turn in your Bibles this morning as we look at the Cost of Discipleship in Luke 9:23-27.

Luke 9:23-27

Luke 9:23–27 NKJV

Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels. But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the kingdom of God.”

Prayer

Message

Last week I mentioned that we reached the crest of the hill of understanding of who Jesus is. Peter answered correctly. “You are the Christ of God.” You are the messiah and the One come to save the world. Amen.

We see another build up of warning that Jesus is laying on the disciples in preparing them for what is to come.

I almost sense at times that Jesus’ thoughts could be like Terry’s thought about us skydiving with him. Hey folks, its one thing to say you want to skydive. Oh yes, its one thing to eat and fellowship, its even another thing to fly up in the plane, but it is a another matter to jump out.

Allegiance

This conversation that Jesus leads in follows Him praying and them coming upon Him to engage in conversation. He extends that conversation from last week when He asked, “who do the crowds say that I am and who do you say that I am?”

Luke 9:23 “Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”

Jesus makes a conditional statement, an “if, then” type of question. And with this question that Jesus asked, the disciples are forced to assess where their allegiance lied. For you see dear church, Jesus is asking “if” you desire to be my follower, it will come with a price.

Furthermore, we know that we are challenged by the Word of God in another place in the Bible that the Lord will not accept halfhearted allegiance. He desires that we be all in.

Matthew 10:38 “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.”

Deny-aparneomai

to deny

to affirm that one has no acquaintance or connection with someone

to forget one's self, lose sight of one's self and one's own interests

If we really love Jesus and want to have total unadulterated allegiance to Him we must deny our self interests.

Let me be very clear here. To become a Christian and be saved is a gift of God and calls for no actions on your part to win favor with the Lord. What you and I bring to the table with Jesus is a liability called sin. Jesus brought all the goods for you and I to be saved. He lived a sinless life and He was the perfect atonement for our sins. Salvation is a free gift of God for the asking. And, it cost Jesus everything. He left His home in heaven and left the communion of the Father and experienced separation by carrying the sin load of the world to the cross. A tremendous price for Jesus, oh yes. Free for the asking for us, yes.

But now, Jesus turns the tables and He makes those twelve men sitting there that day realize that the next phase of your calling will be anything but easy.

There is nothing easy about the call made on the disciples and the call made on you and me to be fully surrendered to Jesus. And for this reason, it calls for a total 180 degree change of your life. When you and I accepted Christ, we entered into a total reorientation of what life is all about, from following a self will for life to allowing a new life to take place that is totally under the lordship of Jesus Christ. Not easy. Many bad habits must be addressed.

“take us his cross daily”-what does Jesus mean when He tells those disciples to “take up their cross daily?

The cross represented death, closure to a former life. We must ask the question, what in my life do I need to die to that needs to happen that I can totally be surrendered to the lordhip of Christ in my life?

The common thread I hear so many times from people that will not be fully surrender to God’s lordship is materialism. Now when I use the word “materialism” I say that word with a broad paint brush.

That carries me to point #2.

Accounting

Luke 9:24-25 “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?”

When you read Jesus use words like gain and loss, those are accounting terms. Jesus is talking about the idea of a person by self will and preservation that attempts to make a life here on earth with the sense of “I built all of this with my very hands.” “Nobody gave me anything, I earned everything I have.” The whole idea of one working all his life with that self made mindset. “I pulled up my boot straps and I made it happen. Nobody ever gave me anything.” Jesus says that person might appear to gain in this life, but if that person does not realize the fact that the whole time God was working providentially in thier life and one give no credit to God, you will lose in the after life. If that person never comes to the saving knowledge of Christ and when opportunities through the influence of the Holy Spirit are not answered correctly and they answer as such:

What can Jesus offer me that I do not already have? If that person never acknolwedges the God of the Universe and that the Lord loves them and surrenders to Him, Jesus states that the person will live in the after life in total separation from God, eternal damnation in a place called hell.

And Jesus states the total opposite for the person that gives all the credit to Jesus as to how they have come to their place in life, regardless of how meager or humble their estate, Jesus states that person will gain riches untold in heaven.

Two places in the Bible quickly comes to mind of two men who had gain for the moment down here on earth:

Luke 16:24-26 ““Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’”

Luke 12:16-21 “Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.” ’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.””

In Accounting, there are two reports that will reflect the full scope of one’s financial picture. One report is called the P & L, the Profit and Loss) and we have discussed in fine detail that Jesus said that you can gain in this world and lose your soul.

On the other hand, a Balance Sheet is a financial picture frozen in time as to where one’s assets are located or lack thereof. For example, when I was in business, I had assets listed on the balance sheet in Cash or Checking Accounts, in Inventory, In Notes Receivables, and there were furniture, fixtures and buildings and on the other side of the balance sheet would be debts, liabilites and equity.

Listen to what the Bible states about our assets:

Luke 12:34 “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

As you think about some accounting principles I think that for many people their possessions possess them.

Remember I sued the broad paint brush term, “materialism.” When we thinnk of materialism, we tend to think of big cars, big diamonds, fancy houses, showy types of things. But think in a broader sense for a moment on the subject of materiallism.

Think about what that is actually material that causes the great separation from you and a deepening committment to the things of God?

Family, work, projects, hobbies, committments, possessions, etc.

I hear this statement so often, “I have so much to see after.” Firstly, when we make such a statement we really forget who it belongs to in the first place.

C. S. Lewis said:

Every faculty you have, your power of thinking or of moving your limbs from moment to moment, is given you by God.

JOb 12:10 “In whose hand is the life of every living thing, And the breath of all mankind?”

1 Corinthians 4:7 “For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?”

1 Chronicles 29:11-13 “Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, The power and the glory, The victory and the majesty; For all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours; Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, And You are exalted as head over all. Both riches and honor come from You, And You reign over all. In Your hand is power and might; In Your hand it is to make great And to give strength to all. “Now therefore, our God, We thank You And praise Your glorious name.”

I have heard some of you make this statement before: “I wish I could eat to live rather than live to eat.” I can relate to that battle.

Ask yourself an important question this morning. Have I lived to possess and allowed those things I possess to possess me?

Affect

Luke 9:26 “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels.”

Our third term has a close tie with allegiance. You must ask yourself who do you want to affect in this life? How do you want to be remembered. And why it ties closely to allegiance is that we all have to come to grips as to how we want to be remembered.

Jesus times again shares that half hearted, compartmentalized, hat tipping periodic attention to Him and the things of God will not cut it.

Luke 16:13 ““No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.””

Revelation 3:16 “So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.”

Lukewarm is the perfect picture of the hypocrite speaking out of both ends of his mouth.

You've Got to Stand for Something

Song by Aaron Tippin

Now daddy didn't like trouble, but if it came along Everyone that knew him knew which side that he'd be on He never was a hero, or this county's shinin' light But you could always find him standing up For what he thought was right He'd say, "you've got to stand for something Or you'll fall for anything You've got to be your own man, not a puppet on a string Never compromise what's right and uphold your family name You've got to stand for something or you'll fall for anything"

Jesus mentions “if we are ashamed of Him down here, He will be ashamed of us when we come into His glory.”

Well, you could quickly say that Brother Luke, let me understand this correctly. I can play both sides of the fence. I can put on a good face for the Lord on Sunday and my church friends and be in the world Monday through Saturday and never speak of Jesus or take stands for Jesus through the week and get into heaven?

He states that you will come into my glory, but He would be ashamed of you. That is what the Scriptures state.

You must really ask what is of value to you? Who do you want to have an affect upon in this world? How do you want to be remembered? One who didn’t stand for anything?

Dearly beloved, there was a time in my young life that stratling the fence was aluring. I made some choices many years ago that if getting ahead in the business world meant that I needed to be more political, that I must circulate more at night and be at more parties and make the right affiliations for the local business world of Montgomery, that if that is what had to happen, I was not going to flirt with that life. I love the game of golf, but I knew as a whole what the Country Club life persay stood for and I chose not to be a Country Clubber. I made choice about both gambling and alcohol because for me they were wrong, they did not represent the actions of a man of the cloth, nor did I want to influence people in the wrong actions to live a quality life here on earth.

Now please understand something this morning dear brother or sister. I did not make those statements that I believe a works attitude is what gets me into heaven. I have made those vows because I want people to know that I am a Christian, I am not ashamed of Him and I do want to act in such a way that people know there is something different about my walk. I would pary that because I attempt to walk in different fashion that people woud be drawn to me in desiring the Jesus that I possess.

Do you want to enter heaven and Jesus is embarrassed to see you or do you want Him to say, “well done good and faithful servant.”

After Life

Luke 9:27 “But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the kingdom of God.””

In closing, it really gets back to a true measure of salvation. You must ask yourself a difficult question. Has there been a real change since I was first introduced to Jesus? Have I grown in my realtionship to Him? Has my life changed? Can people truly tell that there is something different about me?

One of the ways you can know God is at work in you and you are growing more like Him is that people will comment about it. People see a change in us. What are people saying about you?

Jesus asked us in last weeks study, “what do the crowds say about me?” Note that the crowds didn’t have the full answer of God in sound theology at the moment, but they distinctly knew something was different about Jesus. Some thought He was John the Baptist, others Elijah, or a great prophet of old. What are people saying about you?

The reason the question is so vital lies in this verse. If you have truly come to a place and asked forgiveness from Jesus for your sins and have turned your life over to Him, as the song goes, “others will see Jesus in you.”

Let Others See Jesus in You

1 While passing through this world of sin, And others your life shall view, Be clean and pure without, within, Let others see Jesus in you.

Chorus: Let others see Jesus in you, Let others see Jesus in you; Keep telling the story, be faithful and true, Let others see Jesus in you.

2 Your life's a book before their eyes, They're reading it through and through; Say, does it point them to the skies, Do others see Jesus in you?

If that is evident in your life and yes, people recognize that you walk with Jesus, your future is secure and you can state :

I am secure in the here and now, I am enjoying the abundant life now and I know I am secure in the after life.

But, on the other hand, if you could not answer the question in the affirmative and you say no, I have not expereince real change since Jesus came in my life, you might need to revisit accepting Christ as your Lord and Savior.

Let’s pray.