Commands of Christ – 34

Wednesday, December 21, 2022 Commands of Christ – 34

A Christian's Mission: Counting the Cost

OPEN:

Why might a Christian generally regard unbelievers who have messy lives — with a judgmental, critical spirit?

Luke 18:9–14 (LSB) And He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 “The Pharisee stood and was praying these things to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 ‘I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ 13 “But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his chest, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ 14 “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

We may regard others with a judgmental or critical spirit because we want to elevate ourselves and think of ourselves as better than others rather than understanding that:

But for the grace of God there go I.

https://www.gotquestions.org/there-but-for-the-grace-of-God-go-I.html says:

In a way, the attitude of “there but for the grace of God go I” is an antidote to judgmentalism. When we see someone who is down and out, who is suffering hardship, or who is reaping unpleasant consequences, we can respond in two basic ways. We can say, “He deserves it and should have made better choices,” or we can say, “There but for the grace of God go I.” The first response is what Job’s three friends ultimately chose; the second response shows empathy as we acknowledge the kindness of God toward us and extend that kindness to the one in trouble.

When a Christian says, “There but for the grace of God go I,” he or she is expressing thanks for “the riches of God’s grace that He lavished on us” (Ephesians 1:7–8) and at the same time confessing his or her nature and the bent we all have toward destruction. It is the gracious, preserving power of God that strengthens us in temptation, sustains us through difficulty, and keeps us from utter ruin. Paul admonished us to maintain a humble spirit: “For by the grace given to me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you” (Romans 12:3). And he chose daily to live under the grace so freely given: “But by the grace of God I am what I am,” he wrote. And so are we.

We have had God’s grace extended to us. WE DID NOT DESERVE IT. No one can! But we CAN tell others about it. In fact we are commanded by a Savior and (I hope!) Lord to …

Read: Matthew 28:18-20 “And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.””

As we obey Christ’s command to make disciples we need to be careful to obey another command of Christ revealed in Luke 14:25-35. We will get to that in a moment.

OPENING THOUGHT

Jesus is sometimes presented as the ultimate product.

He will help our grades go up, our weight go down and our teeth to be as white as can be.

It is good to approach people on the basis of their felt needs, but we must also present the cost of being a disciple.

People must know who Jesus really is and the demands He makes on His followers.

Thoughts?

Earlier today an article was published entitled: Churchgoing and belief in God stand at historic lows, despite a megachurch surge (The Hill Story by Daniel de Visé)

Church membership, church attendance and belief in God all declined during the pandemic years, survey data suggest, accelerating decades long trends away from organized worship.

In-person church attendance plummeted by 45 percent in the pandemic, according to an ABC News analysis.

At least one-fifth of Americans today embrace no religion at all.

It’s tempting, if not entirely accurate, to conflate “nones” with nonbelievers. Yet, one Pew analysis found that a significant share of “nones” consider religion important in their lives.

“Somebody who has no religious affiliation, they may well value religion,” said David Campbell, a political scientist at the University of Notre Dame. “And they may well believe in God.”

And while it may be socially acceptable these days to identify as a nonbeliever, some of the atheist stigma endures.

On Wednesday, Winter Solstice, Gaylor’s foundation (Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-founder of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates for atheists, agonistics and nontheists) plans to run an ad in The New York Times, a red-cheeked Santa framed by the message, “Yes Virginia. . . There is no God.”

The Times wouldn’t run it, Gaylor said, unless her organization added two more lines of clarification: “That’s what tens of millions of nonreligious Americans believe.”

“People are not getting together much, generally speaking. Not just in church, but in the village,” said Thomas Groome, a professor in theology and religious education at Boston College. “People are staying home. They’re on their cellphones. They’re on the Internet.”

The lone, striking countertrend is a steep rise in nondenominational Protestants, who attend churches outside the “mainline” denominations — the once-ubiquitous Baptists, Methodists and Lutherans. Nondenominational Protestants — “nons” — became a majority in 2021, signaling a new era of churches and clergies untethered from religious tradition.

Mainline Protestantism “is collapsing,” Burge (Ryan Burge, a political scientist at Eastern Illinois University) wrote in a recent article tracking the decline of Christian denominations and the rise of nondenominational churches.

Since the 1970s, the share of Americans who identified as Baptists, Methodists and other Protestant denominations has slipped from more than 30 percent to around 10 percent. In the same span, the share of nondenominational Protestants has exploded. The 2020 U.S. Religion Census found 6.5 million more nondenominational congregants and thousands more churches than in 2010.

“If ‘nondenominational’ were a denomination, it would be the largest Protestant one, claiming more than 13 percent of churchgoers in America,” Daniel Silliman wrote in Christianity Today.

Nondenominational churches often start as, “literally, a guy in his basement,” Burge said.

“They’re real-estate brokers, they’re insurance agents, they’re farmers. And they start a church. You got famous because of your tweets or your YouTubes.”

“What those churches try to do is to be as easy as possible,” Burge said. “They don’t have membership rolls. They don’t fill out contact cards. They make it really easy to get in, but that also makes it really easy to get out. That’s how they’re designed, is to be much more transitory. A lot of these churches don’t have membership. It’s not a thing.”

Yesterday, 3 ministers gathered at the Sawmill.

One is a former UMC pastor, turned bookkeeping business owner, who started and is president of an online seminary.

Another, is a former Calvary Chapel, former Presbyterian, current Associate at a nondenom (baptist by another name).

An AG pastor.

As we discussed a variety of subjects, the Associate pastor brought up the subject of required reading in high school. A book, The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien.

The seminary president said: “Christians no longer have the influence they once had due to their lack of cohesion.” (or words to that effect.) How true! I asked, since I do not have a seminary education, if there has EVER been another time when the church has been so fractured. Unknown.

But such a situation makes us weak in our ability to influence a society driven and controlled by the devil

MORE THOUGHTS?

GROUP DISCUSSION.

Let’s get back to our thoughts on Jesus as a product to improve our lives. That’s how a lot of preachers (like Joel Osteen) “market” Him today.

Think back to your conversion experience, how much of the gospel did you understand?

Did anyone pressure you to make a decision?

Did you face any family opposition?

Did anyone help you grow?

Talk about your experience.

PERSONAL REFLECTION.

With YOUR conversion experience in mind, would you (and if you would) how would you evangelize someone from a non-christian religion, knowing he or she might be disinherited or disowned by family on conversion?

DIG

READ Luke 14:25-35 “Now large crowds were going along with Him; and He turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. 27 “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. 28 “For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? 29 “Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 “Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 “Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 “So then, none of you ca…”

Jesus’ last journey to Jerusalem occupies more than half of Luke’s Gospel, but our focus is on only one incident and its context.

In 9:51 Luke says Jesus “resolutely set out for Jerusalem.”

It took resolve— crucifixion awaited him.

The Jews of tiny Palestine had had ample opportunity to see and hear Jesus.

Religious leaders were plotting his death.

The air was so politicized that religious decisions had political implications.

Many people had turned back from following Jesus, others feared to confess him openly or receive him in their homes.

Yet great crowds accompanied him to Passover.

He asked the Twelve to pray for more disciples, which makes his words to this holiday crowd surprising.

He teaches us an important lesson.

Realize that Passover was like a combined religious festival and national independence week.

Participation was obligatory for all men who could make the journey, and women and children were welcome.

It was a happy time with picnics and singing and friendly chats.

1. Look closely at verses 25-26. What information do you discover about the crowd?

It was large.

They were going along with Him — they weren’t following Him. He wasn’t their leader.

From His words, there must have been families.

What would it have been like to be part of this crowd?

It must have been a joyous time.

Yesterday I watched a video of Jewish men celebrating Hannikah called “Elton Johnukah.” They sang Elton John tunes about jelly doughnts, latke, driedels, menorah and other unpronouncable things (for me). Happy. singing, dancing.

2. In the context of the chapter, Jesus uses becoming a disciple interchangeably with receiving eternal life and being saved. Consider Jesus’ first condition in verse 26. Since he could not be asking them to hate their families, how were they to understand his words (compare with Matthew 15:3-4 “ And He answered and said to them, “Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 “For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and, ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother is to be put to death.’” )?

By comparison, their love for family members would look like hate.

3. Consider Jesus’ second condition in Luke 14:26-27. What is he asking of these men (see also 9:22-26)?

Luke 9:22-26 “saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised up on the third day.” 23 And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. 24 “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it. 25 “For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself? 26 “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory, and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.”

Hate their own lives.

Carry your own cross - a commitment no matter the cost

Fire Bible - For Jesus, it would represent shame and humiliation. But the sacrifice He made on the cross provided us with the opportunity for an eternal relationship with God. Now, we must be willing to identify with Christ and His sufferings, allowing our own reputations to become wrapped up in our devotion to Him. The choice between living for ourselves (i.e., denying Christ) or living for Christ (i.e., denying ourselves) must be made daily. That continual choice will determine our eternal destiny.

Come after me — NOT, I will follow you, but you follow ME (All In)

4. In verses 28-32 Jesus gives two brief illustrations. What lesson was the crowd supposed to draw about discipleship from the example of the foolish builder?

Following Jesus means not quitting in the middle like some do:

2 Timothy 4:10 (NASB95) for Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica; Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia.

5. If people make premature decisions for Christ and then drop out, how is it likely to affect them and the believers and nonbelievers who know them?

It discourages believers.

It persuades unbelievers NOT to follow Jesus.

From your experience, how are believers and nonbelievers affected when a professing Christian doesn’t really follow Jesus?

They say they are but they don’t really.

It makkes it confusing on how to interact with them.

6. How is war a truer picture of Jesus’ mission than a building project, and how does it explain his stiff requirements?

Ephesians 6:12–13 (NASB95) For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.

Revelation 12:7–12 (NASB95) And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. The dragon and his angels waged war, 8 and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. 10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night. 11 “And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death. 12 “For this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time.”

War is more demanding than building something. It requires:

Constant training.

Constant vigilance.

Extraordinary courage

Commitment to follow orders.

7. Consider Jesus’ third condition in verse 33. How might this have upset their expectations even more than the other two?

8. What difference does it make to you that your possessions belong to Christ?

9. How were these followers, who had no genuine commitment to Jesus, like “salt” without saltiness (vv. 34-35)?

APPLICATION

10. What are some reasons that Christians might pressure seekers into premature decisions?

11. How can we responsibly determine if someone understands enough to make a commitment?

12. How can we help seekers make rightly motivated commitments regardless of personal cost?

13. Ask God to help you evangelize responsibly, helping seekers to count the cost and to mature.

Now or Later

Jesus said, “Make disciples . . . teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:18-20). Reflect on how to “disciple” seekers into the kingdom so they can make intermediate responses to the Lord, at their own pace, as they discover new truth, until they come to full commitment and assurance of salvation. What do you see as some of the key aspects of discipleship?

LifeGuide Topical Bible Studies - Evangelism: A Way of Life: 12 Studies for Individuals or Groups.