The Cost of Discipleship

Most Christians see conversion as this magically wonderful and radical thing that once the sinner “prays the prayer” most all-if not all-of their problems will miraculously be solved. The “hard part” in the minds of many Christians is just getting the person to commit. But Jesus’ words remind us that committing to follow is when the hard part begins. And if that’s true, the people of Christ need thoughtful ways of entering into the inevitable suffering and difficulty that is part of the tax and cost of joining Jesus in repentant faith.

One thing in evangelism that I appreciate that Pastor and author Mark Dever says. He insists that we should tell people who are not yet Christians that it will be costly to follow Jesus, but it’s worth it. We can be guilty of stressing the “worth it” aspect of following Jesus, while feel the pressure to share honesty the cost of following Jesus.

BIG IDEA: We need to Give up our weak definition of discipleship

What is the Kingdom?

The Kingdom is synonymous with the sphere of salvation - that eternal realm where the redeemed have true citizenship.

ESV Philippians 3:20 20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it, we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,

At Present, the Kingdom is a spiritual dominion, not an earthly geographical realm.

Jesus described the current state of the kingdom as intangible and invisible.​

ESV Luke 17:20–21 20 Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, 21 nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”

The earthly culmination of the Kingdom awaits the bodily return of Christ.

The kingdom of God is not mainly a realm or place but a rule or reign. (His kingdom power is being manifested in the lives of the believers when demons, unbelief, and unrighteousness are being defeated, and Salvation, righteousness, peace, and joy are happening.

The first phase of the eternal rule is the thousand-year reign of the Lord Jesus on earth promised in Revelation 21:1-8

The common notion that “the kingdom of heaven” (talked about 30+ times) and “the kingdom of God” (talked about 60+times) are separate realms is false.

Note: Matthew always used the expression “Kingdom of Heaven,” and he is the only writer in the New Testament who used that phrase. All of the other Gospels routinely say “Kingdom of God.” The terms are synonymous.

ESV Matthew 13:44–46 44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. 45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, 46 who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

Warning Label from Football Helmet Makers Schutt Sports, a major supplier of football helmets for the National Football League, issues the following warning label on all their helmets and on their website's homepage: WARNING …. NO HELMET SYSTEM CAN PREVENT CONCUSSIONS OR ELIMINATE THE RISK OF SERIOUS HEAD OR NECK INJURIES WHILE PLAYING FOOTBALL.

The warning label continues with some information about the symptoms for concussions and concludes by repeating the original warning: "TO AVOID THESE RISKS [OF PLAYING FOOTBALL], DO NOT ENGAGE IN THE SPORT OF FOOTBALL."

A visitor to the website can't access any content until he or she checks a box next to the words "Please indicate that you have read and understand [this warning label]."

At least this company is utterly honest about the risks of playing football. In a similar way, the Bible is honest about the risks of following Jesus. In fact if the Bible had a warning label on it, it might say: “To Avoid the Risks of Discipleship, Do not Engage in following Jesus.”

Is the entrance to the kingdom free, or is there a Cost?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (the cost of discipleship)

"Cheap Grace" is grace without discipleship. "Costly Grace" is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.

"It's costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life." Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Nothing in the Universe could ever match the priceless value of the Kingdom.

*Worldly wealth puts you at a disadvantage from a Kingdom perspective.

ESV Matthew 19:24 24 Again, I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

ESV 1 Timothy 6:10 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. Through this craving, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

Note: The indictment by Jesus is for those who are enthralled with material wealth, which makes a person unfit for the kingdom of God - even if the person is not wealthy. Those who love or seek after money cause us to wander away from the faith and enter cause lots of pain and trouble.

*The entrance fee to the kingdom is perfection.

Note: The demand of God’s law is very straightforward. Jesus summed it up in a single statement: “You [must] be perfect just as you Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). James says it this way: ​

ESV James 2:10 10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.

This is the paradox of the human condition. So if the law is the measuring stick for the entrance fee to the kingdom of God, then we are all in big trouble because we all fall short. It is the very height of arrogance for anyone to presume that they could perfectly fulfill all of the laws of God. 1 John 1:8 says, “If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not even in us, then he says we are making God out to be a liar.

Here is the picture that Isaiah gives of a man trying to cover up his guilt with our own imperfect works.

ESV Isaiah 64:6 6 We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

THE IMPOSSIBILITY IS IN TRYING TO PURCHASE THE ENTRANCE FEE TO THE KINGDOM OURSELVES.

*Christ paid the kingdom's entry fee in full for those who believe in Him.

NOTE: Jesus is the only one who could pay such a high price for our freedom.

When Jesus uttered the words “it is finished,” from the cross, “by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. Therefore, all who enter the kingdom do so freely, “without money and without price”, by grace through faith - not by any merit or virtue of our own (Eph. 2:8-9)

Even though Jesus paid the price in full, it is not wrong or inconsistent for us to count the cost of entering the kingdom. In fact that is exactly what Jesus meant by these two parables. He urges all who enter the kingdom to consider what it will cost them.

HIDDEN TREASURE OF THE KINGDOM

4 Key Principles of the Kingdom

1. The kingdom is priceless

Note: The kingdom of God is so valuable that losing everything on earth, but getting the kingdom is a joyful trade-off.

In February of 2014 a Northern California couple were walking their dog on their own property when they spotted something beginning to emerge from under the dirt of the pathway. It was a corroded tin can that had been buried years before. Digging it up, they found more cans, all containing gold coins - more than fourteen hundred coins total, valued at more than ten million dollars.

The coins had been minted in San Francisco at various times between 1847 and 1894 - dates that span the California gold rush era. One particularly rare coin in the collection was valued at more than a million dollars. It was believed to be the most valuable hidden treasure every uncovered in the United States. Most of the network news reports covering the story stressed the fact that the odds of winning the lottery are several thousand times better than the chance of finding such a rare treasure.

Note: In Jesus' time, money changers and moneylenders operated with the temple rather than banks. And they did not offer safe places to store one’s wealth. Wealth was typically tied up in land and possessions. Only the extremely rich would have had excess coins, jewels, or other valuable treasure, and it was up to the individual who owned such a cache to find a way to hide it.

In lands where wars and political upheavals were fairly common events, burying one’s riches was a convenient means of protection.

*We must value what God values

The discipline of Economics has it’s own collection of theories that help govern it. For example one of the most important subjective theory of value is that which tells us what value an individual places on various things. For example, the value that Amelia places on her car may not be the same value that Leah places on it.

Leah may think that two thousand dollars is a perfectly fair price for Amelia’s vehicle, but if Amelia is not willing to sell it for less than three thousand dollars, she does not agree with Leah on the car’s value.

Now when it comes to the value of ethics, we see something similar. The ethical study of values has to deal with what people subjectively believe to be right or wrong. It is the descriptive part of the science of ethics, it only tells us the moral worth that a person actually invests in various behavior’s, not the moral worth that they should invest in such things. In ethical theory, ethics looks at the objective and prescriptive part of the discipline. Ethics are the fixed standards of right and wrong to which people should conform.

NOTE: Practically speaking, God’s values are the objective or ethical standard of right and wrong. We must value what the Lord values, and as Jesus tells us in our passage today, this means we must value God’s kingdom above all else. In both stories, something is discovered that prompts the finder to sell everything else that he owns for the sake of possessing the treasure.

THE WORTH OF EVERYTHING THAT HE OWNS CANNOT BE COMPARED TO WHAT HE FOUND IN THE FIELD

We must be willing to forsake everything if that is what it takes to receive citizenship in our Lord’s Kingdom.

CULTURAL PROBLEM: We constantly struggle to see the unseen value. Just like in the first illustration, Amelia places a higher value on her car than Leah does. The problem exists in the discrepancy between what we value and what God values.

NOTE: The kingdom is not superficially visible.

As Jesus said, the kingdom does not come with fanfare: most pay no attention to it whatsoever. Spiritual realities cannot be naturally perceived and are therefore not appreciated in any way by unregenerate humanity.

No one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.

The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God.

The Pearl had to be sought. They were not obvious to the casual observer. The true meaning is not immediately obvious to the outsider. The kingdom of God does not come with fanfare; most pay no attention to it whatsoever. Spiritually realities cannot be naturally perceived and are therefore not appreciated in any way by unregenerate humanity.

ESV 1 Corinthians 2:11 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except for the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also, no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

Unregenerate people have no sense of what the divine glory of God entails.

2. The Kingdom is personally received

NOTE: The key figure in both parables is an individual.

Each finds something of great value specifically for himself and receives it.

This teaching is vital because Jesus was teaching people who were prone to think because they were part of national Israel, they were automatically members of the Messiah’s kingdom.

Like today lots of people think that because they were baptized in the Church, or even formally joined the membership of a Church, that gives them entrance into God’s kingdom. It is trending today for people to come into the kingdom collectively rather than individually. Everywhere we see someone coming to faith, it is a personal encounter with Jesus Christ

*Not everyone comes to the kingdom by the same approach.

In the parable we have two individuals who

1) each understand the worth of the treasure they have found.

2) Each understands and are willing to count the cost to obtain the treasure.

Differences in the two stories

In the first parable, the man stumbles across the treasure.

In the second parable, the merchant seeks the pearl, knowing exactly what he is looking for.

There is no reason to think the man in the field was looking for treasure. He was merely going through whatever routine he normally followed, working, walking, plowing a field, building something, or otherwise doing something that involved digging or cultivating a crop. And while in the field, going about his business, he stumbled across a fortune.

NOTE: Most people enter the kingdom just like that.

The apostle Paul: for example, assumed he was in the kingdom when on the way to Damascus to persecute Christians, he was blasted with a light from heaven that knocked him to the dirt. Paul was, in fact, very satisfied with his own self-righteousness until he stumbled into a fortune that made his own religious accomplishments look like a sack of manure.

The Samaritan Woman: she was coming to the well because she needed water and possibly an escape. Not seeking to encounter Christ, she providentially met Him and went home redeemed. She, the man born blind, the apostle Matthew, and countless others have unexpectedly stumbled into the kingdom of God.

The Merchant on the other had, was on a search specifically for valuable pearls. He knew what he was seeking. He wanted something of genuine, lasting value.

The Ethiopian Eunuch: in Acts 8, he was in his chariot reading from Isaiah until Philip came along and enlightened his reading. This is someone who is actively seeking the kingdom. He is being drawn to Christ in a conscious quest for eternal life.

The Bereans: in Acts, 17 Paul and Silas arrived in Berea, where they received the word with eagerness because they searched for the truth. These are people who are knowingly seeking the kingdom; they don’t know what they are looking for. He is being drawn to Christ on a conscious quest for truth.

Some seem to come into the kingdom simply by accident, while others spend time consciously seeking. In both cases, it is God who sovereignly ordains their discovery of Christ. He Deals with all people as individuals.

3. The Kingdom is the only source of real Joy

Note: The Lord is acknowledging the basic human desire to be happy.

All human beings who have ever walked the planet have this inborn desire and longing to be happy. Joy is a good thing when appropriated towards the right things. Look what Jesus said: ​

ESV John 15:11 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

HOW DO WE FULLY EXPERIENCE THE JOY WE HAVE BEEN GIVEN?

*Kingdom Joy is Supernatural, not Superficial

Superficial joy does not last, superficial joy is fleeting and short lived, superficial joy does not count the cost of the kingdom treasure we have been given.

The Joy that a Christian experiences is not the natural joy of human life. It is supernatural in that it has a supernatural source. It is the work of Christ in us. He is the source of our Joy but it is still our joy.

Notice that Jesus also spoke of the end purpose of His joy remaining in us, namely, that our joy may be full. The term full speaks of a degree to which our joy is made complete.

There are fluctuations in Jesus’ joy, but because there are fluctuations in the degree of our abiding in Christ. We cannot fall out of Christ, but in the process of sanctification we experience greater and lesser degrees of our joy in Him. Here our wills are important that we remain and abide in Christ, just as He remains and abides in us.

How can you tell the difference between true genuine joy and the superficial?

Joy tells us what we value most in life; it defines us as people.

Fake Joy- is the joy people take in sin, the bait on the hook of temptation. The joy of sexual conquest led David to commit adultery with Bathsheba, and the joy of getting away with it led him to have her husband killed. This kind of joy makes the allure of sin possible and repeatable.

Fickle Joy - This kind of joy is contingent on your circumstances. When life is going well, happiness abounds. When life goes south, and the sky is falling with dark, deep depression setting in on your life, joy is nowhere to be found. While true joy resides in pleasant and terrible circumstances, circumstances can only mask true joy, especially in suffering.

Fading Joy - this type of joy is rooted in God’s common grace to all men. If you are a human being, God has blessed you and allows you to experience certain common graces that all people experience regardless of your spiritual state. This could be talents, family, possessions, health, achievements, the beauty of a sunrise or sunset, and even lessons learned through difficult trials. However, this kind of joy is a fading joy. It is fading because this world and all it has to offer is not all there is. If you gain the whole world and do not have the kingdom's treasure, you have nothing. The best this world has to offer is fading joy.

Forever Joy - This is the joy that can only come from and is directed back toward the eternal God, a joy that is the unique possession of Christians. Forever joy is God's delight in Himself, in His creation, and His redemptive plan. It is only through faith in Jesus that you come to share in and experience this joy as a Christian.

The joy the man experienced in the field that day is not counterfeit, superficial, or fading; it is the real genuine artifact.

In the banking world, you would think that they spend hours examining fake bills to tell the difference between fake, counterfeit currency and the real thing. However, in reality, they spend all of their time looking at the real bills to identify the fake if you want to know what real joy looks like, you must examine and look to the giver of true Joy.

4. The Kingdom comes at a High Cost

Notice that in both parables, the prize was purchased. Jesus is not telling us that eternal life can be purchased with money or merited by human works. Eternal life is free to the repentant sinner; it is a gift received by faith alone.

When we say that saving faith is freely received by faith, we do not suggest that such faith is simple knowledge or line our way of thinking to some rational set of facts.

WHAT IS SAVING FAITH?

SAVING FAITH IS NOT.

Saving faith is not a physical act. (it is not walking an aisle, raising a hand, or saying a prayer)

Saving faith is not a mere idea or set of beliefs we ascribe to.

SAVING FAITH IS

Saving faith is letting go of everything else in this world and giving up all trust to God.

Saving faith is a total surrender of your will to God’s will.

Saving faith is abandoning this world and all it has to offer to ascribe to the person and work of Jesus as Savior and Lord of your life.

Saving faith is a saving grace whereby we receive Jesus Christ and rest upon him alone for salvation as offered to us in the gospel.

Saving faith is an exchange of all we are for all Christ is.

As the Classic Hymn says, “Nothing in my hand I bring; simply to the Cross I cling.”

Authentic saving faith yields unconditionally to Christ as both Lord and Savior of our lives. That is not to suggest that at the moment of our Salvation that we can expect to immediately lose every sinful tendency or gain instant victory over every bad habit.

It does mean that from the heart we are repulsed by sin and gain a love for righteousness. That change of heart is the fruit of our regeneration and the proof or our spiritual union with Christ. Those who never repent and lack any true love for righteousness have never truly believed.

The truth of true Salvation is a life of loving submission to the Lord and His Word.

NOTE: Jesus frequently turned people away when their faith was superficial, lacking in real commitment. For example, we reach this exchange in Luke. ​

ESV Luke 9:57–62 57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58 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.” 59 To another, he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 60 And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61 Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Kingdom Sacrifice Marks Kingdom People ​

ESV Matthew 16:24–26 24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 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?

NOTE: The transaction that must occur in every believer's life for them to truly claim that they are disciples of Christ is Self-Sacrifice.

If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself. That is the Transaction. It is an exchange where I step aside and acknowledge Christ as the only rightful ruler of my life. That is what distinguishes authentic faith from all superficial forms of and counterfeit varieties of religious professions. We see so much out there today that by all appearances seems genuine and legitimate, but self-denial does not exist when you start to peel back the layers.

This is the guiding principle of being a citizen in the Kingdom of God. Of course, we do not fully comprehend or understand the full ramifications of self-surrender when we are saved. But true believers “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” ​

ESV 2 Peter 3:18 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

In Luke 14:28, Jesus says, “Which of you, intending to build a tower does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it.” Three verses later, he adds, “Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?”

He is making the same point in these two parables: Count the cost before following Him. And if you do that, you will surely realize that the kingdom is so valuable and the treasure so rich that it is worth letting go of everything in the world to have such a great treasure.

CLOSING

Illustration

The need to count the cost is devoid in most Christian circles of evangelism today. When I first came to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, my mom loves to tell the story of me placing my Gideon N.T. in my back pocket. I spent time on the playground at school chasing the other kids around with my N.T. telling them that if they did not receive Jesus they were going to hell. Well, even way back then that did not go over very well with my principle.

Later in life once I was starting in the ministry, even when I did share the message of Christ with someone they would say, no thank you I’m good. I though how can you be good, you don’t know how precious the kingdom of God is. They would then tell me that they were not ready to fully commit to Him yet.

Here was the flaw in my early way of thinking, I would tell them, you just pray to receive Christ and we can worry about the rest of that stuff later. Of course most would never pray to receive Christ. You see the man in the field once he uncovered and brushed the dirt of the greatest treasure in the world, there was no going back. He was willing to give all he had to possess such a treasure.