Cost of Discipleship - Lord and Savior

Welcome & Prayer

Exogetical preacher

preach the good stuff and easy stuff

sometimes the hard stuff

today may convict some of us,

today may make us a little uncomfortable

But, unfortunately I am not a topical preacher that comes with truth

see I believe that if I simply preach the Bible verse by verse or chapter by chapter we will cover every topic God layer out for us

and todays topic is in line with that

for today more than ever we are faced with a false gospel

a gospel that’s all love and repentance

a gospel that is fluffed and watered down

A gospel that Bonhoeffer introduced during his time on earth as cheap grace

bonheiffers cheap grace is this

Bonhoeffer wrote, “Cheap grace is preaching forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession. . . . Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”

And that is what we are up against these days

a dominant culture that teaching cheap grace

well, that is not was Jesus taught

As we will sooon see, Jesus taught the very opposite of that

Read the text Luke 9:21-27

Now that we know who Jesus is

He has proved that

We know who the apostles know that he is

He has shown us that

Now lets discuss what it means to be a disicple of Jesus

to be a follower of Jesus

To make him Lord and Savior and not just savior

See we will live in a time of the watered down gospel

Where and this may sting a little, but a time when there is just some much drivethrough Christianity

Maybe talk a little about false conversion etc..

emotional conversion?

Here in this text jesus predicts that he will not be the messiah they expected

but he also sets up what the cost of disiplehsip is

what it takes to make him Lord and not only savior

21 And he strictly charged and commanded them to tell this to no one, 22 saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”

The messianic secret - The fact that the messiah would come first as a suffering servent as seen in Isaih seen in Chapter 53 is not what they expected

and do you know the the Jews even to this day skip over this passage

explain Jewish readings and how they wont acknowledge this

Maybe read it?

The Jews expected a politial leader, they expected someone that would come with a sword in his hand and fight for Israel

They expected a conquring king,

when in fact this messiah will conquer thorugh death

it is something they would not understand until after his death and resurrection

So this is what Jesus did for the nation of Israel

This is what Jesus did for us

So what are we to do for him?

what is required of us to follow him

what does it look like for us to call him Lord

See, this pattern is very prominant in this chunk of text

for example, in Marks gospel jesus predicts his death 3 times and each time the diciples either didnt understand or respond ideally

and each time Jesus immedialy teaches the diciples about dicipleship.

This section of Luke is no differant

for jesus just predicted his death, and now he will teach the dicples what true disipleship looks like

23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me

Here he sets up the paramets for what follows

and what follows is easier said than done plan to become his dicpeile

to become his followers

it isnt an easy road, its more of a narrow road

but it is a road to glory none the less

glory by way of the cross

1 - let him deny himself

So what does it mean to deny oneself or in other words, declare self denial?

This is an important concept we must comprehend becaue it is essentially the basis for the next 2 steps

Self denial is ultimatly turning away from our fleshly desire of stuff

turning away from our fleshly desire to achieve

turning away from our natural human inclination to be selfish

its the reality that we are to stop centering our attention on things that enhance or please us

and instead we are to

follow Christs example of humility

His example of puting others first, of loving others first

even when they dont love or even like us back

well honostly, especially when they dont love or like us back

and this should be especially dominant in the church body as we deny ourselves to love of fellow brothers and sisters

its creating a daily relationship with Christ that leads our decisions

Pauls explaying his self denial in Philippians 3:7-8

Philippians 3:7–8 ESV

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ

Paul had everything, he was possibly in line for the chief priest positino

he had a wealth as you can see from his Roman upbringing and the fact that he had roman citizenship

he had folks laying down their cloaks at his feet

yet he gave it all up for christ!

2 - take up his cross daily

A lot of times this small portion of scriputes is taken slightly out of context

we often hear is as well, so and so annoys me, so they are the cross i must bear everyday when I see them

or the fact their job is no rewarding and just a grind each day

many will say this is their cross that they must take up daily

pretty much any difficulty we encounter could be associated with the passage and could be associated with “the cross we bust bear”

But see, the cross today is sybolic of grace, atonement, love right, and I wont argue that

But let me answer this question from the point of view of a 1st centruy Jew or later a Christian

To them the cross was not symbol of Christs sacrifice and love

to them the cross was a symbol of death, it was a symbol of excrutiating torture

a symbol of ridicule

a symbol of a condemned criminal

so brothers and sisters taking up ones cross is so much more than having to put up with an annoying co worker or missing the green light

taking of our cross daily means to die daily to ourselves…

This metafor Christ uses has a 2 fold meaning here

it means as we discussed a minute ago to die to yourself

and it also asks the question are you willing to die for Christ

Jesus was forshaddowing for his disciples the fact they will most likely die for the message they will one day preach

and in fact many in this world are being persicuted and dieing for that same message

and we must ask ourselves, is that something we are willing to do

because honostly the true walk of a disciple will likely put us in places of rejection, hardships, and trials.

John 15:18 ““If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.”

So when we say we are to take up our cross, we are not to take that lightly

3 - follow me

to follow Christ is only made possible by following the first 2 steps he laid out

the 2 steps area...

to follow Christ is a life of Love, servanthood, and sacrifice

to follow Christ is to imitate him, to be obediant to him and his teachings

and ultimitly his sacrifice and atonement on the cross

next, Jesus will break it down even further and give us an example

24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

And here is where the rubber meets the road

here is where Jesus plainly states the motivation for those that follow him

25 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?

For those that lose their life and give it fully to Christ will be saved and will eternally dwell with Him in heaven

Folks this is preaching itself

Jesus is not holding back

here he just doubled down on what we been discussing this entire morning

wordly things are just that

things of the world and we can strive and work and toil for all things under the sun only to remain empty

only to remain unfulfilled

for it is a blatant denial of God when we worship things here on earth only to lose our soul

can you imagine, obtaining all you can. climbing the corporate ladder, becomeing that CEO, that president, owning your own business, achieving all you could have possibly imagined

only to have put Jesus aside while in the process

Then you look at the person that is looked down at

the person that is mocked or looked down upon becuase they have little to no money, they have a car that is falling apart, no honor, no prestige, yet they have hope and meaning that cannot be imagined by the person with everything

See this person, he was willing to lose his life,

he was willing to give it all to Christ and hold nothing for himself

we find a great example of this in the rich farmer

Who had so much that he stored up all that he had and built bigger and bigger barns

only to be visited by death that very night

and all things he had, all that he acquired meant nothing

for he did not have the one thing required of him, and that is Christ as Lord of his life

and this leads us to verse 26

because our acknoledgement and worship of the things of this earth show exactly where our heart is

ashamed of his teaching, to the point that we ignore them,

and in turn turn from him to the ways of the world

26 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

Brothers and sisters, those that are ashamed of Jesus here on earth

Those that do not follow him fully here

will one day retreat that decision

because Jesus plainly says, that if we are ashamed of him here on earth

then surly he will be ashamed when he comes in His glory

In Conclusion

give yourself fully to christ

don't hold back

we know that there is something deep inside of us that longs to worship something

longs to be wanted, longs to be accepted, longs to be popular, longs to be rich

But the world cannot fill that, things will only continue to make us emplore and long for more

So come to Christ with your longings, come to Christ with your hurt, come to Christ with your life

Don’t subscribe to cheap grace

follow Him, make Him your Lord, as well as your savior

and I can ensure you, you will not be disappointed