BE FOLLOWERS OF ME

ME:

Now before I had a car and a driver’s license I had to rely on other people to take me where I needed to go. Sometimes it would be to the grocery store, to the bank or to work.

Sometimes I would ride with people and they would take detours and ways that I didn’t know. I’d think to myself, do they even know where they are going? Sometimes they would make stops at places I wasn’t expecting to go. They’d take me on quite the journey sometimes.

WE

All of us have experienced this in some way or fashion. You were taken somewhere you didn’t know you were going or maybe you had to meet someone somewhere and you didn’t know where you were going. ive done that before. Id put the address in my GPS and the lady voice or as i’ve named her “Felicia” will say turn right ahead. I’ll look to the right and there will be nothing but a ditch so I am like No Felicia I am not turning right!

Those are exciting times! Road trips and journeys are so exciting and fun and you usually learn more about the people that you go on these trips with.

Trans*

Now God wants us to go a long a journey with him. To do life with Him. A long the way, He teaches us things, instructs us how we should live our lives, guides and directs which way we should go. At times, it can be a really scary thing. Because where He takes us is usually uncomfortable, so it takes an insane amount of trust and faith to allow Him to do that. This is what Discipleship is all about. It is simply going on a journey with someone and taking them to uncomfortable places in their lives and in their hearts. It is taking them to their own death so that they may die daily to themselves and be made alive in Christ!

Let’s read what Jesus has to tell us about this. About Discipleship...

(NIV)

25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. 27 And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 28 “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? 29 For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, 30 saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’ 31 “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.

THE CALL TO DISCIPLESHIP

In the Gospels, we see how Jesus called the Disciples. Some of the features of the call were...

1)Jesus was the one who takes initiative to call His Disciples to follow Him

2) Jesus commands radical obedience to His call...

a. leave the dead to bury their own dead

b. Go proclaim the kingdom of God

3) The Calling of Jesus divides people into two groups

a. Those who are disciples of Jesus

b. Those who are disciples of Satan

Now we see in our text it says “Large crowds were traveling with Jesus”. This was the case many times. Discipleship is a process. It’s a journey with Jesus but, just how far are we willing to go with him? says “many disciples decided to stop following Jesus because he told the crowd that they must drink of his blood and eat of his flesh”

There are many that follow Jesus to see what they can get from him instead of what they can give to Him.

Are you willing to go the distance with him?

Are you willing to still follow him after that bad medical report of cancer?

Are you willing to still follow him after the death of a spouse, a child, or another loved one?

Are you still willing to follow him after being betrayed and stabbed in the back by someone you trusted?

This is part of the Cost of Discipleship...

THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP

Jesus wasn’t like a typical salesman giving a pitch to buy their product. Usually you’ll have a salesman call you and they will say we have a great deal for you. Its 50% off and we will even throw in an extra product for you, tell you why you absolutely need this and why you need this now. They maximize everything good about it but, minimize everything negative about it.

Jesus was not a good salesman. His pitch was....

You are going to have to hate your father, mother, spouse, children, siblings, and even your own life!

You are going to have to carry your own cross and will be persecuted

Now I can’t imagine this sales pitch going over well but, the clients he would get would be for the most part, faithful and devoted followers.

I am sure when Jesus said to hate your family and life itself, that it caused a real stir among the people. A lot of times Jesus would say something so outrageous like this so he could get peoples attention and get his point across. Here Jesus wasn’t saying to really hate your family and life itself for He said else where that we are even to love our enemies. What he was saying was, that every other relationship we have should in comparison look like hate to the love and devotion we have to Christ!

Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary: Year C, Volume 4 Theological Perspective

This term for “cost” appears only once in the New Testament, and it is in this passage. Cost is what we give up to acquire, accomplish, maintain, or produce something. It involves a measure of sacrifice and perhaps loss or penalty in gaining something. Cost requires effort and resources.

Now is your interest in living for God halfhearted? The time may come for you to make hard choices because God doesn’t take fourth priority for long. If you make career your idol, or sports or wealth, perhaps you should reevaluate. You will have to decide: to what are you really devoted? to whom are you really loyal? Following Jesus must be your first priority. We are to daily pick up our cross and follow him!

The term for “cost” here appears only once in the New Testament. Cost is what we give up to acquire or produce. It involves a measure of sacrifice or loss and requires effort on our part. In the process of becoming living disciples, we must, as Jesus says, learn to give up all of our possessions, our need to acquire, our yearning for success, our petty jealousies, our judgements of others, our hatreds, and so much more—and follow the way of Jesus, as we place ourselves in the potter’s hand to mold our thoughts, words, and actions. These possessions keep us further and further away from the Christlike walk to which Jesus invites us in discipleship.

Townes, E. M. (2010). Theological Perspective. In D. L. Bartlett & B. B. Taylor (Eds.), Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary: Year C (Vol. 4, p. 46). Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.

THE COMMAND TO MAKE DISCIPLES

We also have a command to GO and make disciples!

(NIV)

19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

We are commanded to go and make disciples of all nations. Notice it says make so disciples are made not born. That means that it takes a lot of hard work and time into making a disciple. So how do you do this? How do you make a disciple? Jesus goes on to say by baptizing and by teaching. Baptizing them into the name of the triune God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In the ancient world, to be baptized into the name of somebody meant to come under the allegiance of that person, to surrender ownership to that person. To be baptized into the name of the triune God means that now your supreme loyalty is no longer to your biological family, culture, or country, it is to the triune God. You belong to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. That is where discipleship begins. Baptism is an outward sign of an inward grace and it begins with a death of ourselves and then we are raised to life in Christ.

and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Jesus also told them in order to make disciples we have to teach people to obbey everything he commanded them to do which is summed up in loving God and loving people. He didnt just reserve that for the pastor or sunday school teacher but, it also includes you. A disciple of Christ. He says as we do this that He will be with us. He will never leave or forsake us and the Holy Spirit will give us words to say when we dont know what to speak.

The Master Plan of Discipleship Principle of Multiplication

Considering that the church prior to Pentecost numbered only a few hundred believers, this is an astounding achievement. Probably the Christian community within three decades had multiplied four hundredfold,18 which represents an annual increase of 22 percent for more than a generation, and the rate of growth continued remarkably high for 300 years. By the beginning of the fourth century, when Constantine was converted to Christianity, the number of disciples may have reached 10 or 12 million, or roughly a tenth of the total population of the Roman Empire.

Such growth cannot be sustained by merely adding the children of Christians to the rolls, nor is it the result of large transfers of membership from other congregations. The early church grew by evangelistic multiplication as witnesses of Christ reproduced their life-style in the lives of those about them.

It does not matter how small the group is at the beginning, provided that they implant their vision in men and women who will in turn pass the word along to others and that they also reproduce. The early church gave eloquent witness to the dynamic in the hearts of people who take God at His Word and believe that with Him nothing is impossible.

Think about the early church and how it multiplied by making disciples. It didnt do it through a program. The people simply loved each other and showed God’s love to others. It says they will know we are His disciples by the way we love one another!

Now growth cannot be sustained by merely adding the children of Christians to the rolls, nor is it the result of large transfers of membership from other congregations. We aren’t in it to exchange sheep but to win the lost! The early church grew by evangelistic multiplication as witnesses of Christ. Their life-style showed evidence of Christ.

Now growth cannot be sustained by merely adding the children of Christians to the rolls, nor is it the result of large transfers of membership from other congregations. The early church grew by evangelistic multiplication as witnesses of Christ reproduced their life-style in the lives of those about them.

The early church gave dynamic witness to outsiders and were a people who took God at His Word and believe that with Him nothing is impossible.

YOU

Who is it that you are being Discipled by? Are you listening to the teachings of the World or are you listening to the Word and what the Holy Spirit is teaching you? Who are those who have the greatest influence in your life, are they following Christ.

Is Jesus a priority over everything else in your life. Its not about what you are giving up for Him but, its about you giving in and totally surrendering your whole life to Christ!

Who are you spending time with to Disciple, to teach the things of God to? We all should be discipling someone and being discipled by someone else.

STICKY STATEMENT: DISCIPLES ARE MADE. NOT BORN.

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