Why Following Jesus Seems Hard
Part 1 in series The Shape of Things to Come
Wildwind Community Church
David Flowers
September 6, 2008
I have been telling you for a few weeks that I was going to be talking to you about some new things we’re going to be doing at Wildwind this year. This is the sermon where that is going to happen. However, I have to tell you, talking directly about our church has always been hard for me. Wildwind is like my kid, in a way. It came from my mind and my heart as Christy and I struggled and wrestled with God’s plan for our lives. Just like a child, it has been interesting for us to watch what the church is becoming. And just like a child, we aren’t always completely thrilled with everything we see, but we love it with a love that is boundless. Just like a child, it is not perfect. We see its flaws, but rather than feeling angry or disappointed in it, we root for it all the harder, love and pray for it all the more.
I’m going to talk to you about Wildwind Church today, but not until after I’ve talked to you about Jesus. And as I talk to you about Jesus I’ll talk to you about Wildwind. Because if there’s any announcement I want to make about this year, it’s that we’ll be continuing on with the focus we’ve established on Jesus through our series we just finished on the Sermon on the Mount. This church only matters if it’s pointing to Jesus, teaching Jesus, declaring Jesus, always trying to get Jesus right, and get Jesus into the heads and hearts of its people so that more and more it’s Jesus working through their hands.
We have done a lot of things right since starting Wildwind. Our focus on extending God’s love and mercy and grace to everyone is right. Our focus on simplicity and not getting bogged down in a million programs and ministries is right. Our focus on small group ministry and connecting people in relationships is right. Our focus on preaching in an accessible style that pushes people to think, but one that doesn’t water down or sell out the gospel is right. Our focus on making sure people are welcomed in a laid-back non-pushy style is right. Our focus on asking members to make commitments is right – churches that ask their members to make specific commitments nearly always grow better and deeper than churches that do not.
We have done a lot of things right at Wildwind. But there are some things as a church that I think we haven’t done right. One of those is take discipleship to Jesus as seriously as it deserves to be taken. What is discipleship to Jesus? It is learning from him how to live the kind of life he lived.
Now you might hear that and think, “Uggh! That sounds really hard. I can’t live the kind of life Jesus lived.” But my friends, that’s precisely what Jesus called us to do. Committing our lives to Jesus is nothing more, and nothing less, than enrolling in his school of living. And to understand why that’s important, you must understand that you are enrolled in someone’s school of living at this moment, whether you realize it or not. You are living according to how someone taught you to live. School teachers and professors. Parents and pastors. Friends and psychologists. Oprah Winfrey. Television. Politics. A treasured songwriter. Someone, and probably a number of someone’s, have already taught you how to live your life. Americans value individualism and we each want to think we’re doing it our own way, but that’s just not true. You are living right now under teachings you received from someone else. What that means is that you have already been formed spiritually. If you are a selfish person, that comes from the way you have already been formed. If you are gracious and gentle and kind, that comes from the way you have been formed. If you are impatient and critical and demanding, that comes from how you have been formed. If you struggle with lust or anger or jealousy or fear or guilt or greed or resentment or a dirty mind or loose lips or whatever – all of that comes from the way you have already been spiritually formed.
So when we talk about following Jesus – when we talk about enrolling in his school of discipleship, we are talking not about spiritual formation, but about spiritual transformation. We’re talking not about being formed, but being reformed! See, the reason people come into churches and hear a few sermons they don’t like and then go away mad is because they did not come to be transformed – they came to be entertained. If you come to church to be entertained, then you will leave church angry any time things are said that challenge you to change. But if you come to church to be transformed, then you will leave church disappointed if things are NOT said that challenge you to change.
And now we’re starting to get to why people think following Jesus is hard. Following Jesus is hard when the deepest desire of our hearts is not to be reformed. We cannot follow a Master who promises to reform us if we’re perfectly fine with how we’ve already been formed. And most people are. Most people have dedicated their lives to staying the same – to rejecting the idea that they are in need of a Savior. Heck, as a pastor and counselor, I can’t even get people to realize it’s really okay to go talk to a counselor about an issue. Most people view that as a sign of weakness and something only weak-minded people do. How much harder to get people to realize and admit their sin and their need for a Redeemer and a change of heart. We’ll never make a change if we’re okay with how things are.
Those fighting for campaign finance reform in Washington D.C. are doing it because they think there’s something wrong with the way the system is currently formed. Those fighting for reform in education see areas where the system is malformed. John McCain and Barrack Obama are both running as candidates of change, but no person in human history has ever called men and women to the depth of reform and change that Jesus of Nazareth has called us to. And Jesus is proof positive that people are okay with political reform, okay with educational reform, okay with institutional reform, okay with legal reform, okay with financial reform, okay with ethical reform, but most people – even most people who say they follow Jesus – reject out of hand that it is not politics, not education, not institutions, not the law, not finance and not ethics that need reform, but rather it is the human heart that needs reform – that needs transformation – that needs to be changed, brought from the place where we now stand as we have been formed through our lives up to now – and worked over. Changed deep down, from the inside out, in ways that we cannot currently comprehend, on levels deep inside ourselves we are not even currently aware of. Transformation. Transformation only happens as we commit our lives to Jesus and place them in his hands, and stop twitching. Jesus told an amazing story about being his disciple. Let’s work through this.
Luke 14:26 (NIV)
26 "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple.
Obviously Jesus here is not saying that a person should actually hate their own family, as that contradicts everything Jesus taught about love for every person – even our enemies! Jesus is saying that we must realize when we come to Jesus that there is no relationship in our life that compares to our relationship with Jesus. There’s just no comparison.
Luke 14:27 (NIV)
27 And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
What is the meaning of the cross? The cross has one basic meaning, and that is the end of life as we know it. It’s significant to realize that people were tied to crosses and hung on them. They could not come down. And they were not brought down until they were dead. This doesn’t mean you will be called literally to die. And Jesus doesn’t say to take up his cross, he says take up yours! You didn’t live Jesus’ life, and you probably will never have to die his death. But you do have to take up YOUR cross. You do have to realize that this means the end of life as you know it – that you must pick up that cross and not sent it down until you are dead – until there’s nothing left of the old you anymore – no more fear, no more guilt, no more suspicion and hatred, no more lust – it’s dead. Jesus intends to put you in a situation where you will not survive. At least the you that you are now will not survive. But the you that emerges will be much better. Much happier (we’ll discuss that next week). Much better off.
This is the first reason most people think it’s hard to follow Jesus: they are trying to live the Christian life without the cross. It can’t be done. The Christian life is a life of cross-carrying – of dying to our lives we know them and learning to live new ones like Jesus lived. Many times we’re scrambling around learning stuff about Jesus, but never even seriously intending to pick up our cross and actually DO something about it. Then we wonder why we struggle and why it seems hard. But the Christian life is lived from the cross. From the cross, every single command Jesus gave can be obeyed and followed. Without the cross, we’re powerless to do almost anything he said. Let’s get real about that for a minute. We can nod our heads and say this teaching is true, but will we carry the cross when we create our calendar and allow it to affect the way we actually live? I’ll talk more about that next week.
Luke 14:28-33 (NIV)
28 "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it?
29 For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him,
30 saying, ’This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’
31 "Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not 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.
In this section Jesus talks about counting the cost. Now when we talk about this in the church, we always talk about it in terms of what we’re going to lose. Don’t we? Count the cost! It’ll cost you your life. You won’t be able to party anymore. You can’t have sex with whoever you want to anymore. You’ll have to clean up your language and go to church and join a small group and start giving your money.
The problem is that’s not how we count the cost in any other area of life, is it? When you buy a new car, do you think only of the money you’re going to pay? Of course not – you’re thinking of the money you’re going to pay versus what you’re getting – a newer, perhaps cheaper car – fewer repair bills, more reliability, etc. If we only thought of what we stood to lose, we’d never make any decisions at all but would always keep everything just exactly the same as it is now. Years ago German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a book called The Cost of Discipleship. It costs so much. And it does. It eventually cost Bonhoeffer his life. Now no one has ever written a book called The Cost of Non-Discipleship. But that’s what we have to think about in order to count the cost. We have to assess what we stand to lose, against what we stand to gain. And what Jesus is telling you here (and in tons of other places in the gospel) is that the Cross is the single greatest opportunity you will ever get in your life. What you stand to gain on the cross is far surpassed by anything you ever stand to lose.
Matthew 13:45-46 (NIV)
45 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls.
46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.
So the second reason people think following Jesus is hard is because they have never seriously counted the cost. You hear about taking up your cross and you think, “That sounds so hard – that sounds like bad news – I have to die to myself and my own desires and whims and will?” But what we never think about is how bad the news already is, and the fact that if we do NOT count the cost and then take up our cross, it will only get worse. Where will life lead when we live for ourselves? Where does the crossless road ultimately lead? Ponder that.
My friends, I want to tell you tonight that following Jesus is not hard. Following Jesus is the easiest thing you will ever do, but it will be downright impossible if you don’t do it from the cross, if you’re not full-in. Which many of us here tonight aren’t. We’ll deal with that next week and it’s not going to be some trippy thing – it’s going to involve things we all deal with every day and understand very well. In the normal, everyday way we live our lives, we are bypassing the cross. Now that’s not how we think of it because we’ve already been formed by a culture that sees things very differently. But if you say you are a Christ-follower and you find that it is constant struggle and constant difficulty, there’s a reason for that that can be diagnosed and fixed. We’ll deal with that next week.
Following Jesus is not hard, but it will be impossible if you do not first count the cost. If you do not take stock of your current life, your current values, your current loves and affections and attachments, and if you do not come to the conclusion that they simply are not worth hanging on to, then you will enter a discipleship relationship with Jesus always looking back, always wondering if it’s worth it, in constant doubt that you’re on the right road.
Luke 9:62 (AMP)
62 Jesus said to him, No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back [to the things behind] is fit for the kingdom of God.
We see this verse and feel put-upon, like it’s super hard-core or something. The reason it feels hard-core is precisely because we have not seriously counted the cost. Many of us have not come to a place where we have realized that discipleship to Jesus is the greatest opportunity any person can ever get and that we are fools not to take that opportunity! We have not realized truly that our concern with what we’ll have to give up is ridiculous compared to what we stand to gain. We have spiritual bad attitudes!
Luke 14:33 (NIV)
33 In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.
Jesus isn’t saying give up all you have because I want you to be destitute. He’s saying I have a pearl of matchless price for you, but your hands are too full of dog poop to receive it. You might laugh, but examine your heart – the bad tempers and hostility and lack of forgiveness and unhealthy drama and constant emptiness and desire for praise and lust and everything else – do that and you know exactly what I am talking about. Talk about counting the cost – THAT’S what you stand to lose. THAT’S what you stand to lose by getting on the cross.
So how do you begin to follow Jesus with ease?
1. Count the cost carefully. Determine whether or not you’re in.
2. If you’re in, get in. Pick up your cross. Remember you’re not giving up a single thing that is worth keeping.
3. Let that commitment reflect in your wallet, on your calendar, at the office, and at home. You no longer live to preserve your personal status quo – you’re being reformed!
Now I said I’d talk about the church. I’ll do that briefly in closing. I’ve just talked about the most important thing Wildwind will be doing this year. Not just telling you that you should be a disciple of Jesus, but showing you how. We’ll actually learn how to pray for those who persecute us, how to love our enemies, how to root lust and greed out of our lives, how to give generously, how to pray. We’ll learn about the obstacles that are keeping people from connecting to God. Perhaps most important, we’ll focus on ways that our current lives will simply have to be reshaped and restructured in order to be obedient to Jesus. Did you know one of the most important factors in whether or not you can obey Christ’s command to bless those who curse you tomorrow is whether or not you go to bed on time tonight? Did you know one of the most important factors in connecting more directly to God is dealing with problems you have in connecting to huan beings?
This will be a year where we will focus on discipleship to Jesus. I’m looking for people who are going to count the cost – people who are getting sick of themselves. People who are tired of feeling like spiritual failures and are looking for more. People who want to drop the dog poop and clean up their hands and accept the pearl.
That’s all I’m going to tell you this week. This direction we’re going will have an impact on our small groups. It will have an impact on our programs and ministries. It will have an impact on our reputation in this community. And like I said before, it will have an impact on our calendars, pocketbooks, and relationships. Everything goes to the cross. Now if you’re intimidated by what seems like the intensity of that, you do not understand discipleship. At some point the disciple Matthew was a tax collector and Jesus said “follow me.” As soon as Matthew got up and began to follow, he was a disciple. A bumbling one perhaps, but a disciple nonetheless. You can be absolutely certain that you are a disciple of Jesus. After all, it’s not hard to know.
I lied earlier. I’m going to tell you one more thing about the church. I have revised our mission statement. You say, “What mission statement,” and to that I’d say “Precisely.” The one that was on our website but that wasn’t guiding us a whole lot. Here’s our new mission statement. Our mission is to be a community of people learning how to take Jesus seriously as a Redeemer who can save our lives, a teacher who can change our lives, and an example who can show us how to live.
A Redeemer who can save our lives. Has Jesus saved your life? Have you appealed to him for his mercy and grace and decided to follow him? Will you seriously count the cost and think about becoming a disciple of Jesus?
A teacher who can change our lives. Teaching is life-changing because teaching changes our minds, which begins to change our feelings. Are we willing to take Jesus seriously as one who knows how we should live, and allow him to begin to reform and transform our minds and hearts?
An example who can show us how to live. When Jesus left this earth he told his disciples to teach people to obey everything he taught. So we don’t just learn from Jesus, we follow his lead and adopt his values and live our lives as if he were us, actually living out the stuff he taught us. Change of mind leads to change of heart, which leads to change of action. You can know whether you’re learning from Jesus by whether your actions are changing.
From now on, that’s what Wildwind does. We teach people how to take Jesus seriously as a Redeemer, teacher, and example. We want to see people come to faith in Jesus, grow in their understanding of him and what he said, and then we want to see their lives bearing increasing resemblance to his.
I’ve shared with you today why people think following Jesus is hard. Next week I want to talk to you about just how easy this life is meant to be. And of course we’ll talk more about some new things at Wildwind in there too!
BTW, this new series is called The Shape of Things To Come and refers both to our church and to our lives as followers of Jesus, or those who possibly are considering it. Let’s pray.
