The Cost of Discipleship

You simply cannot get around self-denial in the New Testament. Let me just read to you a few verses from the New Testament: , "But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you." Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, 22 and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 23 When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes. says, "33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple." says, "12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted."

To follow after Jesus is to deny yourself. To follow after Jesus is to abandon everything that this world tells you is necessary for you happiness and your satisfaction because you trust that Jesus is better and more satisfying and more delightful. This morning, I want us to focus our attention once again on the very same text we looked at last week. And, last week we looked at this text and saw the cost of being a disciple of Jesus. This week, I want to take this a step further and look at the cost of being a disciple-maker.

"If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross" Now, I want us to first remember how our text defines a true disciple of Jesus. Jesus says that 'if anyone would come after me', that is, if anyone would be my disciples or if anyone would want to be apart of my Kingdom, 'let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.' So, Jesus says that his disciples will live cross-shaped lives. They will live lives that are defined by the self-denial that is found at the cross. They understand that if they are going to follow after Jesus and grow into the image of Jesus that they must go where Jesus went. They must go to the cross. And, here I want to remind you that Jesus is not talking about a metaphorical cross. Jesus is not talking about cross-bearing in the way that we have become so accustomed to thinking of it. He is not speaking of an achy back or nagging mother-in-law or a rebellious child. Jesus is talking about a cross upon which you are physically and literally murdered. He is talking about dying a martyr's death because of your allegiance to Jesus Christ as the only path of salvation. Jesus is teaching us that his disciples will be defined by a literal willingness to die because they know that Jesus is better than life. And because they have a literal readiness and willingness to die because of their allegiance to the Lord Jesus, they are certainly more than okay with enduring a few momentary discomforts and difficulties as they serve Jesus with all of their lives. John MacArthur describes discipleship in this passage as being 'willing to start a death march...willing, in His service to suffer the indignities, the pain, and even the death of a condemned criminal.' And brothers and sisters, understand that this is the material that revival is made of. Revival does not come through a weekly preaching series that we casually attend, and revival does not come because we have figured out how to swell our attendance. No! The kind of revival that changes the communities in which they occur, the kind of revival that leaves men and women awestruck by the glory of God, the kind of revival that changes the trajectory of the generations is the result of men and women living with a resolute willingness to die and suffer for the cause of Christ, and as a result living their lives with a reckless abandonment, with a Spirit-wrought freedom that can only come when you are okay with dying, okay with being unpopular, and okay with being uncomfortable. That, brothers and sisters, is the material of revival! That, brothers and sisters, is the secret to the Book of Acts in which the Holy Spirit descends upon the people of God and the people of God go out with a reckless abandonment for the glory of Christ so that they ultimately die and the gospel unstoppably spreads.

Now, the question I want us to consider this morning is: What would cause the disciples to suffer? And, I want us to consider this because it gets to the root of why I believe we will suffer, and it gets to the very root of so much that we are asking you to do as members of Iron City Baptist Church. What was it about the lives of Jesus' disciples in that day, and now in ours, that causes them to suffer? Why was Stephen stoned, and why was James beheaded? Why was Peter crucified, and why was John boiled alive in oil? Why was Paul stoned and beaten and left for dead? Why was James the Just thrown from the pinnacle of the temple and then clubbed to death? Why were Christians burned in Nero's Gardens? Why was Dietrich Bonhoeffer hanged in Nazi, Germany after living in a concentration camp? Why are missionaries today living in North Korean work camps? Why are Christians in the Middle East having their beheadings live-streamed around the world? I submit to you that the answer to each and every circumstance, spanning the whole of church history, is that they are suffering and dying because they are intent on making disciples. It is not because they are praying in their homes alone. It is not because they are trying to have a private relationship with Jesus that doesn't tell other people that they are wrong. It is because they have taken up the mantle and mission of Jesus to make disciples of all nations. It is because they have been audacious enough to claim that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life and that no one gets to the Father except through him. It is because they have taught and preached and lived that man must repent of his sins and pursue Christ with every fiber of his being.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a man who refused to bow, like many other church leaders, to the atrocities of the Nazi regime. Resolute to make disciples and to raise up preachers, he founded an illegal and underground seminary to train German pastors to live faithfully for Christ in the midst of the Nazi regime, knowing that many of the men he was training would likely find their ways into concentration camps and gas chambers. Viewed as a 'spiritual instigator' he was imprisoned in a concentration camp, ultimately to be hanged. A witness to his hanging said this: "I saw Pastor Bonhoeffer...kneeling on the floor praying fervently to God. I was most deeply moved by the way this lovable man prayed, so devout and so certain that God heard his prayer. At the place of execution, he again said a short prayer and then climbed the few steps to the gallows, brave and composed. His death ensued after a few seconds. In the almost fifty years that I worked as a doctor, I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God."

If we make disciples by the method of Jesus, it will cost us our lives. The nature of being a disciple of Jesus is laying down your life, and the nature of making disciples is laying down your life. The means of becoming a disciple translates into the method of making disciples. There is nothing easy or convenient or self-indulgent about disciple-making. Disciple-making is gut-wrenching. It is to embrace a position of vulnerability in this world for the sake of the building of God's kingdom. Disciple-making makes us vulnerable to betrayal and to being misunderstood. It makes us vulnerable to disappointment and to heartache. It requires patience and long-suffering. It requires uncomfortable confrontations and painful forgiveness. Living as a disciple-maker has historically meant that the unreached world is uncomfortable with you and dislikes you. It is a call to live a life of patience and long-suffering as you deal with the ebbs and flows of not just your own Christian life, but the Christian life of those whom you are trying to disciple. It is to face the disappointment and devastation of witnessing a man or woman that you've poured your soul into falling away from the faith and into the throes of sin.

The life of disciple-making is a life of self-denial. It is a life of cross-bearing. It is counseling at 2:00 in the morning. It's having people in your house, when you'd really like to be alone. It's by the power of the Spirit helping them to overcome their blowouts and sins. It's having them be angry with you or offended by you, not because you were harsh or unkind, but because you were the voice of truth and their flesh hated it. It's calling them to account, and allowing them to do the same with you. It is inconvenient, time-consuming, and messy.

“take up the cross” The life of disciple-making is a life of self-denial. It is a life of cross-bearing. It is counseling at 2:00 in the morning. It's having people in your house, when you'd really like to be alone. It's by the power of the Spirit helping them to overcome their blowouts and sins. It's having them be angry with you or offended by you, not because you were harsh or unkind, but because you were the voice of truth and their flesh hated it. It's calling them to account, and allowing them to do the same with you. It is inconvenient, time-consuming, and messy. Discipleship requires you to get right into the middle of 'stuff.' Every disciple that you make is a sinner in the process of transforming, and they've got 'stuff.' They've got issues. They're going to be messy. So, if you're going to be a disciple-maker, you're going to be burden-bearer. You're going to bear the weight of not only your own marriage, but the unhealthy marriages of your disciples. You're going to bear the weight of not only you're own spiritual disciplines, but you're going to bear the weight of the godliness of others who may have even less discipline than you. You're going to bear the weight of their parenting and their porn addiction and their gossip habit and their materialism and their flesh. To be a disciple-maker is to be a burden-bearer, and it is self-denying, soul-exhausting work.

Discipleship requires you to get right into the middle of 'stuff.' Every disciple that you make is a sinner in the process of transforming, and they've got 'stuff.' They've got issues. They're going to be messy. So, if you're going to be a disciple-maker, you're going to be burden-bearer. You're going to bear the weight of not only your own marriage, but the unhealthy marriages of your disciples. You're going to bear the weight of not only you're own spiritual disciplines, but you're going to bear the weight of the godliness of others who may have even less discipline than you. You're going to bear the weight of their parenting and their porn addiction and their gossip habit and their materialism and their flesh. To be a disciple-maker is to be a burden-bearer, and it is self-denying, soul-exhausting work.

APPLICATION: But, is this not the way of Jesus? Is this not the shape of the cross? For all of you who have laid down your life as a disciple of Jesus, I call on you to lay down your life as a disciple-maker for Jesus! Lay down your life that you might be a God-given, Spirit-wrought tool in the hands of Almighty God to be apart of changing someone else's life. If the young marriages here are to have any hope, we've got to have cross-bearing disciple-makers to step up. If we are serious about the next generation not going the way of the world, we've got have cross-bearing disciple-makers step into the lives of youth and children. If the parents here are to have any hope of raising their children in the admonition of the Lord, we've got to have disciple-makers step up. Are you burdened about the state of our community and the state of our world? Are you burdened over the rapid spread of Islam around the world? Are you burdened about the slaughter of infants in the mother's womb? Then, will you step up? We need an Acts type movement of discipleship in the church today. We need Christians to spend their lives at all costs so that God might use them to transform the world.

"For whoever would save his life will lost it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." As we move into verses 25-26, what Jesus teaches us that there is an easier path available. There is a path that avoids cross-bearing. There is a path that allows you to miss out on the gut-wrenching, sleepless work of disciple-making. There is a path that is more pleasurable and more convenient. There is a path that will give us our Sundays back and give us our Thursday mornings back and give us back our living room without the distraction of people constantly in need. Yes, such a path exists, but do not be deceived for one second that it is the path of Jesus. Jesus' point to Peter in verse 23 was well-made: Self-seeking makes you like Satan, not like Christ. Seeking to live out your life for your good is the path of Satan, not the path of Jesus' cross. And, the end which those who are self-seeking will find is the same as that which Satan will find. God hates self-seekers, as they rob God of the glory that is His alone. Self-seekers naturally are not God-seekers, and seeking their own benefit, they forsake God's. A life built for its own benefit, comfort, pleasure, and preservation is a worthless one -- and in the end -- a costly one.

"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?" Verses 25 and 26 are about values. What do you value? Do you value all of the pleasures and treasures around you, or do you value Christ and his Kingdom? Do you value that which is available to you now, or do you value that which will endure forever? As Jesus confronted Peter so He confronts us: Will you live your life focused on the things of man or focused on the things of God? In other words, will you live a life of spiritual passion or worldly appetite? Will you trade now for later or later for now? Will you trade Jesus for silver, or will you trade silver for Jesus? Will you adopt for your life the very values of the Kingdom of God? And, this gets to the essence of disciple-making. Maybe you're here today, and you're under the conviction of the Holy Spirit to make disciples, and you're wondering, "Yea, but how? Where do I start? What do I do?" In its very essence, disciple-making is training people to set their minds, and therefore their lives (), on the things of God, not the earth. And, it is to do it by giving them a front row seat to watch you do it.

APPLICATION: Making disciples is no less and no more complicated than living your life committed to Jesus and inviting other people to join you in that pursuit. So, run after Jesus with all of your heart in reading your Bible and delighting in God's word, and invite others to join you as you do it. Run after Jesus with all of your heart in your parenting and in your marriage and in your friendships, and invite others into your home and into your life as you do it. Run after Jesus with all of your heart in the places that you work and with the neighbors that you have, and then share your struggles in doing and the ways that God has given you victory. Train people to live out the values of Christ as you yourself pursue doing the same. We will not make disciples until we move beyond our church classrooms and into the messiness of our lives. Run after Jesus with all of your heart, and then invite people who are one step behind you to run with you.

“he will repay each person according to what he has done” As we make disciples, we must work diligently to not sanitize the gospel of its inherent costs. We must be direct and clear, in both deed and words, of the costs of following after Jesus. We must demand of our disciples that they willingly lay down their lives for Christ. The key to making disciples is not making discipleship easier. The key to making disciples is proving that discipleship is worth it! For Jesus did not come and die on the cross and remain dead. Jesus was raised in glory to ascend to his Father's right hand where He received the crown of his glory. And, He has promised to us that this is the path of every, single one of his disciples. He is making sure that it's so. What we must show our disciples is exactly what Jesus is showing his: Their eternal reward will far outweigh and far outlast the fleeting costs of following Jesus in the here and now. Did it cost you a promotion and your standing in the company? You will have standing as a co-heir and co-ruler of the Kingdom of Christ! Did it cost you the approval of your family? Jesus has made you his brother or his sister, his mother or his father, as He told us in . Did it cause others to ignore you or to exclude you from friendship? You are a friend of God forever, who loves you perfectly and unconditionally forever. Did it cost you the money you were owed? One day, you're going to walk on pavement made from gold. O Iron City, let us paint a more glorious picture of Christ than those who limit his Kingdom to the here and now! Let us paint for our disciples the picture of the true Christ, costly for a little while but savored and treasured and enjoyed forever! Let us teach our disciples to count the costs, but not without counting the promises of God at the same time! Our suffering does not lead to despair; our suffering leads to glory! Our difficulties will not destroy us; they will be used for our good! We will not be in poverty long, for Christ has prepared a mansion for us! O count the costs, but count the promises, too!

Brothers and sisters, I understand that we are calling you to a hard life when we call you to be disciple-makers. I understand that we are calling you to be betrayed and let down, discouraged and broken-hearted. I understand that we are calling you to work hard, often without gratitude or any fruit that you're making a difference. But, make sure that you take hold of this: We are calling you to a hard life that comes with a reward! This isn't all for nothing! How glorious will it be to watch your disciples receive their crowns? Won't it be worth it? Won't it be worth seeing your children receiving their crown? Won't it be worth it to see that young mother that's so hit or miss right now receive her crown? Won't it be worth it when you see that once young man that so struggled with self-discipline receive the crown of faithfulness? If there are tears to be found in heaven, they will be found streaming down your face as you behold the very children of God obtaining the very reward you helped them to receive.

Keep on, disciples of Jesus. Keep on! Keep on sowing that gospel seed! Keep on singing that gospel song! Keep on living that life of high cost! Because the Day of reward is drawing near! Count on the promises of God! Disciple-making is gut-wrenching and difficult, but it is worth it!

The Cost of Discipleship

Introduction

God’s Word

Read

Starting a Death March

Means and Method: Lay Down Your Life

Getting Into People’s ‘Stuff’

There is Another Path

Spiritual Passion or Worldly Appetite?

Run After Jesus (with Others)

The Reward Will Far Exceed the Costs

Your Disciples Will Receive a Crown!

Landing