Sacrifice
Notes
Transcript
Good morning church! Thank you for being here. It’s always good to be together and worship together.
If you are new here, I hope you feel welcome by us! We want you here. We are excited you are here. In fact, we have a gift for you: your very own Lindsay lane east t shirt. Simply fill out that card in the back of the seat in front of you and drop it by next steps on your way out today. They will hook you up with a shirt and some info about our church! Those cards are also great for letting us know about prayer needs and next steps we can help you make.
This morning, we are beginning a new study called “Follow: what it means to be a disciple. We are going to be looking at four statements Jesus makes that explain what it means to be his disciple.
We live in a world that has made it super simple to sign up for stuff! When you are checking out at the clothing store, what do they ask? Are you a Rewards Member? We can do that today, it only takes 5 minutes and it will save you 10% today! Or even a credit card!
There’s always fine print to this stuff, but they make it so simple we don’t even care!
When Kelly and I bought our current house, it was the simplest signing process we have ever had since we were buying it as a foreclosure. There was no selling party present so we just had to sign our names. It was still a lot of signing, but when you think about the responsibility we were signing our names to, it was rather simple.
Or, let me really creep you out… How about every website you go to on your phone, and you have that little pop up at the bottom about cookies? I like Cookies, sure I’ll click approve. Little do you know if you click on “Details” you will find out that they are sending all the info that they can get from your phone and selling it to third parties.
Just because something is easy to sign up for, doesn’t mean it doesn’t have intense responsibilities!
My prayer is that over the next four weeks, those of us who claim to be believers will acknowledge and begin to own the responsibilities we have taken on ourselves. And for those of you who may not have yet trusted in Jesus, that you can know what this looks like before you make that decision!
Let me read the key verse for the series, I’ll pray and then we can start walking through this.
A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.
PRAY
In this passage, Jesus gives us the clearest picture of what it means to be a disciple. He says a student is training to become like his teacher! The word disciple simply means student.
But don’t think college student or high school kid. As we sit under Jesus as our teacher, we don’t get to clock in and out. It’s more than 2 hours, twice per week, for a semester. Being a disciple of Jesus means a lifetime of committed lifestyle learning that never ends!
But lead me make sure we all understand who Jesus is talking to...
When I was a kid, I had a misconception of what the word “disciple” meant. In my mind, people who had trusted in Jesus were Christians. But “disciples” were next level. They were Christians who were doing really cool things for Jesus and growing in their faith. So, there was this level of believer that was nice and didn’t require a lot from me.
Am I the only one who had Christian and Disciple as two levels of believers?
However, as I read God’s word more and more, I realized that disciple is not next level. It’s all the same level. Disciple seems to be interchangeable with Christian and believer. Which means that all the hard passages in which Jesus talks about the expectations of DISCIPLES are not for Super Christians. They are for all Christians!
There are four key themes of discipleship that Jesus says his students must exercise: Sacrifice, Obedience, Love, and Bearing Fruit. Today, let’s talk about SACRIFICE.
There are many people who are convinced that because they have surrendered their lives to Jesus, that he somehow owes them a good life. When we face trials we can look to God and talk to him as if he has broken some sort of agreement. God has found a loophole in the contract and has pulled the rug out from under them.
What I want you to see today is that this is not true discipleship. IN fact, to be a disciple of Jesus doesn’t mean that your wildest dreams will come true. In fact it means that you must be willing to give up your wildest dreams to follow Jesus! That may not be your perception, but I can promise you that is what Jesus says!
Look with me at a Luke 14:25.
Now great crowds were traveling with him. So he turned and said to them,
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, and even his own life—he cannot be my disciple.
Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
“For which of you, wanting to build a tower, doesn’t first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?
Otherwise, after he has laid the foundation and cannot finish it, all the onlookers will begin to ridicule him,
saying, ‘This man started to build and wasn’t able to finish.’
“Or what king, going to war against another king, will not first sit down and decide if he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand?
If not, while the other is still far off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.
In the same way, therefore, every one of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.
Jesus makes some bold claims about our priorities and the things we must be willing to sacrifice if we are to follow him closely.
The first thing Jesus says is that...
1. Jesus > Your People
1. Jesus > Your People
This is going to be the hardest to hear maybe...
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, and even his own life—he cannot be my disciple.
WOW! Jesus… That’s pretty intense!
Jesus clearly isn’t saying to literally hate your family to follow him. He’s using hyperbole, extreme statements to drive home his point.
In Jesus’ day it was not uncommon for a person to come of age, get married and move their spouse right into a home adjacent to their parents. You could live your entire life right there by your family. In a culture in which travel has become much more easy, that has changed in the Western world. But this was a big ask from Jesus here! Our love for Christ must supersede any connection to our parents or our siblings! That’s the sacrifice we make as believers.
You don’t want to risk not being with your family your whole life, Jesus says, don’t follow me! You must be willing to sacrifice these relationships if I call you to.
This means that if these relationships hinder our walk, we must make decisions. If our connection to them is keeping us from taking a big next step towards Jesus, we have to assess that. Our connection with God through Christ must be stronger than any physical connection we have with family.
Jesus also mentions our spouse and our children… Does that mean we must be willing to leave our wife or husband with the kids to go follow God’s call on our lives?
That seems contrary to Scripture and even to Jesus’ teaching elsewhere. Jesus affirmed the idea from Genesis 1-2 that Husband and Wife were one flesh. Where there were once two beings each making his or her own decisions, now they are one flesh, having to consider the feelings and leanings of the other person.
Paul played on this idea when he spoke to the church at Corinth about sex. The man’s body is not his own but belongs to his wife. The wife’s body is not her own but belongs to the husband. There is a clear teaching
Jesus also says that...
2. Jesus > Your Plans
2. Jesus > Your Plans
How much do you like your plans? Some of you haven’t even thought about what you will have for lunch today and others of you know the job you want to have 10 years from now. But all of us have hopes and dreams, things we would like to accomplish in our lifetime.
But Jesus steps into that and says...
Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
The cross was a device of torture and death. Think electric chair! But Jesus says that we must “bear his own cross” as we follow after him. And remember this was before he had been killed. They had to be thinking, “That’s a bleak image bro!” But Jesus chose this image carefully.
Remember the last thing Jesus said before this… “We must hate even our own lives in comparison to our love for Christ!”
Part of that sacrifice involves the things we do and the places we go: our plans. You see, to carry a cross was a humiliating thing. It would be placed on your back and shoulders by the Romans and then you would be made to walk where they told you to go. And when you got there, they were in charge. To carry your cross is to participate in your own death.
Jesus says we must be willing to forsake our plans for his. We must be willing to walk through hardship when we had plans for peace. We must even lay down our lives if necessary even though our prayer is for long life and prosperity.
You see to follow Jesus is being willing to sacrifice the success fast track if it means following him. I know people in the military who have refused promotions to levels others only dreamed of because they know that such responsibility would pull them from their duties at church and in their community. I know business men who could be running major companies, but their calling is to something different. I know several pastors who could be making twice as much money doing something else, but they have sacrificed that for the sake of Christ!
If you need a model for what this looks like, don’t look to these military men, business men, and pastors. Look to Jesus! He is the perfect model here!
Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus,
who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited.
Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man,
he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death— even to death on a cross.
Jesus gave up everything, even his own life as a sacrifice for the kingdom! He sat aside the existence he knew to that point, and instead took up his cross. Church, the Son of God had been eternally at the Father’s right hand, reigning and ruling over creation. But all that was sacrificed so that he could be born in this flesh that you and I live in everyday. And he didn’t even get to enjoy a lavish life. He lived a short time and suffered a painful death at the end.
This humility of taking up the cross must be present in me and in you. We must be willing to give up our plans for what God desires, even to the point of death. Take up your cross church, and follow after him.
The last thing Jesus mentions is that...
3. Jesus > Your Possessions
3. Jesus > Your Possessions
In the same way, therefore, every one of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.
Jesus says that we cannot be about our stuff. And listen, I love my stuff. I have toys and tools that
If you are reading another translation here, the word possessions may be different. The Greek word here can also mean “being”.
“Don’t store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.
But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Jesus says he is more important than Your People, Your Path, and Your Possessions. The question for us is… “Do we live like that is the case?” Jesus says here that this is what a disciple understands. If we are to follow him, we need to live like this.
But I want to end on what Jesus says in the middle. He uses two analogies to help us understand this.
He uses a king building a tower and a king declaring war. Both of these things take thinking and planning. If you are going to build a tower, you better make sure you have enough money to finish it.
If you are going to declare war, you better make sure you have a big enough army to win. You can get in a mess if you don’t have those answers beforehand.
The point Jesus is making is that following him is the same way. You need to know what the cost is before you start. But so many of us were just told to pray this prayer to receive salvation and heaven, but we were not told the fine print. You signed on without knowing the responsibilities. However, God has sovereignly placed this message before you so that you recognize what your calling looks like too! This is what you signed up for! FULL SACRIFICE!
And here’s the good news, if you are not a believer, let me tell you you should be! You are separated from God because of your sin, and you can’t fix that on your own. So, God sent Jesus to be born, live a perfect life and die a cruel death. But in his death, God made it clear that he took on our sins. All the things that separate you from God were placed into Jeuss’ body and he died for them, so that we can have life. Today, if you are ready, Jesus will saved you from your sin. BUT, let me also tell you that following Jesus will not be easy! It takes complete and total sacrifice from you!