Deferred Discipleship
Notes
Transcript
Who wouldn’t want to follow the all-healing devil-stomping prophesied Jesus? There is a cost: following Jesus will cost “everything you have.” Following Jesus meant going across the lake, into homelessness, leaving family to “bury themselves.” Jesus is consistent: following him will cost everything. But our soul is to gain… and uncountable blessing to follow received from His hand. Count the cost… and then eagerly follow.
Swim Team Is Life
Swim Team Is Life
Arabelle has been on the swim team for Broomfield high school the last two years. Super awesome, she’s wicked fast.
But girls’ swim team goes from November through March… which covers almost every birthday in our family. And swim practice is every day, with meets happening all over the place.
So, a couple of times Arabelle had to ask, respectfully things like:
I was just wondering if it’s possible i could be in earlier events on wednesday. Tomorrow is my brothers birthday, and we’re are planning a birthday dinner, so i might need to leave early from the meet and i don’t want to miss any of my event.
And a reply:
Family is important, but so is your team.
… and didn’t change the schedule AND still insisted Arabelle stay to cheer on the rest of the team. I get that in general, but that isn’t anything my order of priority.
But… swim team is life, I guess.
Jesus the Great Healer
Jesus the Great Healer
Okay. Jesus healed the leper. Amazing, touching the untouchable. Beautiful.
Jesus healed the servant of the Centurion, the occupying enemy, Rome: talk about loving your enemy!
Now… it’s a build-up, the greatest challenge of all. The most untouchable of untouchables.
Jesus heals many:
14 And when Jesus entered Peter’s house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever.
15 He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and began to serve him.
From the leper… to the hated Gentile Roman centurion, untouchables all… to the Mother-in-law. I didn’t structure it that way, I’m just reading the text. Matthew laid these out in this order, not me.
Mark, Matthew, and Luke all specifically call out the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law. Apparently it’s important. More about that later.
16 That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick.
17 This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.”
Logan read that for us earlier.
Of course people are following this guy! Why wouldn’t they?
Well… Jesus will give them a reason.
18 Now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side.
This is the “other side” of a lake… but it’s HUGELY symbolic.
It’s a barrier, it’s a step, it requires one to follow… and it’s inconvenient. All kinds of inconvenient. Find a boat, buy a boat, borrow a boat, hike around. And what if you have something else going on?
Surely Jesus will understand family conflicts?
19 And a scribe came up and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”
Who is this scribe?
Don’t know… but that’s the right answer.
Jesus responds:
20 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”
Kind of an odd answer. Here we learn that Jesus is essentially homeless. Likely not out of total desperation, surely his mom would let him sleep wherever he sleeps… but perhaps purposefully homeless?
He has left home and occupation. He has left everything… and asks his followers to leave everything.
Where is he going? Not home… he doesn’t have one of those. So he is clear: to “follow you wherever you go” is a dangerous open-ended promise.
21 Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”
22 And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”
I don’t think we can fathom how big an ask that is. I mean, it seems like “kind of” a big deal to us. Missing our Dad’s funeral, not taking care of all those details… You say at work you need a few days off to bury your father, you are getting vacation and sympathy all day.
But this culture takes family obligations to the max. When Joseph asks Pharaoh leave to go bury his father in another country, Pharoah agrees and Joseph goes with essentially an army. I mean, Moses brought the bones of Joseph back to Israel. That’s 400 years later, still caring for the bones of ancestors. The responsibility, honor absolutely demands the son be there, and if there are no other sons, he is officially exempted from all kinds of religious duties so he can get this done.
If it’s the actual burial of his father, that’s usually same day, in which case this JUST happened. Now the language there could mean that his father is in his final days or years and he is taking care of him in declining health…
But either way, the “disciple” asks to delay his following. But Jesus is clear: that isn’t how it works. Jesus says “no,” follow me now.
This is time-sensitive.
This is non-postpone-able.
Deferred Discipleship. There is no such thing, in Jesus’ book. The boat is leaving across the lake, the Master is moving, will you follow?
This is urgent.
You don’t know if you have another breath, and this is the most important decision you will ever make.
There’s no guarantee of another chance.
You have a real invitation… right now, into salvation.
You have a real invitation, right now, into discipleship.
But Jesus is and always is super clear: There is a Cost.
The Cost of Discipleship
The Cost of Discipleship
Salvation is free, but discipleship will cost you your life.
That’s a quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer… who gave his life for Christ. Died in a Nazi prison camp.
But long before discipleship might cause your death, it costs your life.
I think it’s absolutely notable that Peter’s mother-in-law is mentioned here… and only here… right before this example of counting the cost.
Peter left everything. Do we hear about his wife? Not really. I remember the shock in hearing that Peter was even married, how does that work? Did he just abandon her?
This nameless disciple, I don’t know that he followed or not. He may regret having missed his father’s funeral… he would never know how much he missed if he missed the boat with Jesus. Even though Jesus is sailing into the literal storm. There is literally NOTHING more important than the next thing Jesus is calling you to.
Jesus had this gift of seeing exactly what has a hold of your heart and requiring that of you. Not because he is mean… but because he wants you to be free. And only by being only His can you be free.
So he asks the rich man to leave money. He asks the fishermen to leave their boats AND their fish. He asks the family man to leave family.
What does he ask you to leave?
Following always involving leaving.
Following always involving leaving.
Getting to the next level always requires ending something, leaving it behind, and moving on. Growth demands that we move on.
-Dr. Henry Cloud
This isn’t a one-time decision. Jesus… he keeps moving. Keeps calling us forward. Keeps sending us out.
Across the lake. Down to Jerusalem. Out to Samaria. Out to the world.
Exactly where, exactly when, exactly as He is calling you, leading you.
This is why we are “Next Step.” This is the whole idea: where is Jesus, look and behold him. And where is He leading, where is He pointing, what is He showing us next?”
And by definition, going is leaving. To take this “next step” you step away from there. Sometimes trivial… sometimes it is ANYTHING but trivial.
Step away from:
Your preferences
Your comfort
Your favorite thing
Your family and friends
It is no accident that Christ likens it to literally picking up the vehicle of our torture and death:
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?
Follow, and gain your soul
Follow, and gain your soul
The intention is not to dwell on what you’re leaving… it’s to recognize that following Jesus is WORTH it.
There is some hope here.
Paul, in writing about our rights, our freedoms in Christ, in defense of his own apostleship, writes this:
5 Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?
Cephas, called out there, that’s Peter. “Cephas” is Aramaic for “Petros” aka Peter.
So somewhere in there, I’m guessing NOT day one, Peter’s wife comes to faith and joins him in ministry. That is a blessing received from the hand of God, not any kind of guarantee.
We don’t come to call Jesus Lord with a list of expected requirements, expected blessings. There WILL be blessings, and abundant blessings, but (thankfully) our Good Giver will decide where and when and how and how long…
So we leave all.
We abandon control over what we get and what we don’t. Who we get and who we leave.
We leave all and follow Jesus.