Discipleship part 2
INTRODUCTION
To open I would like to start with a true story that happened here at our church. A mother at our playgroup called ‘Jane’ wanted to know more about God, so I started a bible study after the play group. After a few weeks she said it was great but what she really wanted to understand was how to do a personal bible study and personal prayer life. She had some friends from England who gained strength from a personal faith. As none of the other mums are Christian and I could not teach her, one-on-one, her interest in Christianity faded.
It is fair to say that people are not interested in organised religion, but they are interested in something personal and real. A real faith that gives you strength when you are feeling depressed. A real relationship with Jesus Christ that involves prayer, personal bible readings and a genuine connection with God, this cannot be taught from a sermon but is found in one-on-one training. People are not interested in programmes, they are interested in becoming students of God and learning how to live God’s way.
The main job Jesus left us to do was to make students. There is a difference between a believer and a student. There is no such thing as an instant student; like the word, it takes study and discipline.
A Russian comedian, Yakov Smirnoff jokes about when he first moved to America, he was amazed at the variety of instant products he could buy in the store. “There’s powdered milk: just add water and you have milk. There’s powdered orange juice: just add water and you have orange juice. Then he saw Baby Powder and thought, “What a great country! If you want a baby, just add water!””
Some people think that’s how discipleship works. You take a believer, add a little baptism water, and “poof” you have a fully-devoted follower of Jesus–a real student. But it takes more than water to make a student. Students are made, not born.
Read Luke 14:25-14:35
In Luke 14, Jesus is getting closer and closer to the cross. People who wanted to see a miracle or get a free meal from Him were mobbing Him. The crowd is about to become much smaller because He started setting forth the cost of being a student, and it’s not a popular message. It requires total commitment.
A hog and a hen sharing the same barnyard heard about a church’s program to feed the hungry. The hog and the hen discussed how they could help. The hen said, “I’ve got it! We’ll provide bacon and eggs for the church to feed the hungry.” The hog thought about the suggestion and said, “There’s only thing wrong with your bacon and eggs idea. For you, it only requires a contribution, but from me, it will mean total commitment!” That’s the cost of discipleship.
In this passage of scripture, Jesus provides five images, and uses each one to teach a lesson about discipleship.
1. A FAMILY: LOVE JESUS SUPREMELY
2. A CROSS: LIVE LIKE A DEAD PERSON
3. A TOWER: CONSIDER THE VALUE OF A GOOD FINISH
4. A WAR: SURRENDER TO THE STRONGER KING
5. SALT: STAY PURE TO PRESERVE GOODNESS
(image of purpose driven church circles)
Which circle represents where you are today? Where would you like to be? The job of a student is to become part of the core committed and then move out into the crowd to make more students.
1. A FAMILY: LOVE JESUS SUPREMELY
“ 25Large crowds were travelling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 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.” Luke 14:25
“23"Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.”” (Matthew 5: 23 – 24)
I'm a biographer; I can live with a little hyperbole (exaggeration).
Ron Chernow (American writer born 1949)
And here, He simply employed hyperbole. Hyperbole is an intentional exaggeration to emphasize a point. One of the fun games I like to play with my wife is to call her bluff. She says to me ‘You are not wearing that shirt’, and I say ‘but I am wearing it, look it is on me now’. She gets frustrated and says, ‘You know what I mean.’ And I say, ‘Yes, you are a person that does not tell the truth, You say that I am not wearing that t-shirt and I tell you I am wearing the t-shirt.’ At this point she gets exasperated and clearly says, ‘What I mean is, I don’t like that shirt it looks terrible’. To make any conversation interesting all people use exaggeration, short cuts and humour and even Jesus uses exaggeration.
Also, the Greek word in this verse means something totally different than our English word for “hate.” The word is sane, which means “to prefer above.”
To be a student, you must love Jesus more than you love anyone else–even family members. I say this as a father of a 10 week old baby and a husband to a beautiful wife. Your love for Jesus should be so powerful that in comparison, it seems as if you hate everyone else.
In China I met with a pastor from an underground church. We both prayed that God would help the government realise that Christians want to contribute to society. He shared with me his passion for China and his desire not to be imprisoned but free to preach Jesus. That is a real commitment.
If you truly love the lord and are seeking to make changes in your life, is it easy? In Matthew 10 Jesus said, “All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved…Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” (Matthew 10:22,37)
While Jesus is using exaggeration, it is true that being a godly parent is hard, having a Christian marriage takes work. There is a joke here in the office that every time you start to move forward in Jesus the devil just pulls you down.
When I because a pastor it was fascinating to see my different families reaction. My mum was happy, my dad started to go to church ‘because my son’s a Christian’ while my grandparents were totally opposed. My grandmother said it was a waste of time and I would forever be a student. Going against my grandparents wishes I became a pastor. It is hard for my wife to be married to a pastor: routinely we have meetings in the evening, I could make more money in a different profession and we would have more time together as a family. But she routinely says, ‘I know what I got into when I married a pastor, that is a sacrifice you make’.
When God calls you, you have to make some difficult decisions, and sometimes your family will not jump up and down and rejoice over your choices. That’s the first mark of a true student of Christ. Next:
2. A CROSS: LIVE LIKE A DEAD PERSON
“27And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:27
The instincts of nature shrink from death, for no creature can like its own dissolution. But though death is not desired, the result of it may be, for dying to the Christian is the way to life eternal.
William Jay
English, Clergyman 1769 – 1853)
I was recently at a friend’s office who is a non-Christian. Up on the wall he had a joke marked “I've found Jesus. He was behind the sofa the whole time.” It indicated to me how much people really do not know about God. When you ask them, ‘Do you know Jesus?’ they really do not know what you are talking about.
Many Christians are just as confused today about what it means to carry a cross. I’ve had someone say to me, “I have migraine headaches, but I guess it’s just the cross I must bear.” The cross is NOT a headache or an ingrown toenail. It is a sense of self sacrifice that puts others first.
When was the last time you sacrificed some time for someone who is not your friend, to pray with them and teach them the bible? We die to our own desires and we live for other people.
Today, the image of the cross has lost its horror. The true message of the cross is death. How many of you are either wearing a cross today, or have a cross on your Bible?
Today, the cross has become benign–a piece of harmless jewelry. In the Jesus’ time, it was a horrible, agonizing tortuous mode of execution. It was the noose, the electric chair, the lethal injection of His day. In the time of Jesus when you saw someone carrying across it meant one and only one thing–they were as good as dead. A few years ago, a Catholic nun Helen Prejean wrote a book, Dead Man Walking. When a death row prisoner is walking from his cell to the place to be executed, the other prisoners say, “Dead man walking.” He’s alive and walking–but he’s as good as dead. That’s a perfect description of what Jesus meant when He spoke of a student carrying his cross. We are dead people. We are free from only helping our friends to helping the people around us. To praying and reading the bible with each other.
Paul understood what it meant to carry a cross. In Galatians there are three verses about what it means to carry your cross:
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me...” (Galatians 2:20)
“Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.” (Galatians 5:24)
“May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” (Galatians 6:14)
One of the classic books on discipleship is The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer was a German pastor during WWII. Because he opposed Hitler and the Nazis, he was imprisoned where he died before the war ended. He wrote:
“The cross is laid on every Christian. As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with his death–we give over our lives to death. The cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” (The Cost of Discipleship, p.99).
In caring for others, are you able to set aside time, read a bit of scripture with someone, pray with them and ask how their week has been? That is the basics of our faith, that is the basics of discipleship.
The next image is:
3. A TOWER: CONSIDER THE VALUE OF A GOOD FINISH
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? 29For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, 30saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.' Luke 14
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929- 1968)
Jesus presents the image of a man who plans on building a tower. Before he begins the construction, he must “count the cost” to see if he has enough resources to finish the job. Now this is the cost of discipleship, not the cost of salvation.
Before you embark on the Christian life, if you stopped to ask, “do I have enough to finish?” The answer is always, “NO.” It’s not our resources that are necessary–God provides all we need. God is the builder who finishes the job called salvation.
In Philippians 1:6 Paul said, “Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion.” Jesus is talking about the cost of total commitment. Actually, it’s better to think in terms of the value instead of the cost. A good finish as a student is the key. A lot of backslidden Christians may go to heaven when they die, but they won’t be finishing well. In verse 29 Jesus spoke about the man “who was not able to finish.” Jesus says everyone will look at the uncompleted project and ridicule the one who didn’t finish it. I’m haunted by those words–I don’t want to become a spiritual dropout.
If you have ever been to Mosman Park near the beach, there is a beautiful Baptist church there. The building is beautiful and I even know the pastor who helped design the building. It has a proud history and is one of our oldest Baptist churches in perth. The problem is that no-one goes to it. The building sits empty with nothing but a security system to keep it company. The church started well, had a great middle life but never coped with entering the 21st century. The world changed, but that church did not.
The older I get, the more I realize there can never be any “coasting” in the Christian life. There is no such thing as spiritual retirement. The pages of the Bible are littered with great men and women who didn’t finish well. Noah and his family were saved from the flood, but poor Noah ended as a drunken man who got naked and cursed his son. Solomon was the wisest man in all of history, but he didn’t finish well–his many wives turned his heart from God.
Are you going to finish well? I’ve been here long enough to know some folks who used to be faithful Christians–real students of Jesus–but they have dropped out. Oh, they still attend sometimes, and I suppose they’ll go to heaven when they die, but unless something changes they aren’t going to finish strong. They are like that church building in Mosman Park.
The American Behavioural Scientist Journal in 1995 published an article that shows it is not the number of friends you have when you die that is important, it is whether the friendships you have are positive or negative. Just sitting down and having coffee with people is not always positive, but sitting down, reading the bible together, a short prayer and a discussion about your week can only be positive. As you live your Christian life, are you doing this?
For those of us who have been a Christian for a long time, it doesn’t matter what has happened in the past, you still can finish well. The finish line is still ahead. Are you sitting down on the track? Are you going to barely drag yourself across the finish line, or are you going to summon God’s strength so you can sprint across the finish line?
4. A WAR: SURRENDER TO THE STRONGER KING
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? 32If 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. 33In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple. Luke 14
Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm ... As you grow older you will discover that you have two hands. One for helping yourself, the other for helping others.
Audrey Hepburn (American actress 1929- 1993)
A joke to lighten the mood
A trio of old veterans were bragging about the heroic exploits of their ancestors one afternoon down at the RSL hall.
"My great grandfather, at age 13," one declared proudly, "was an errand boy in world war one."
"Mine," boasts another, "went down at Gallipoli."
"I'm the only soldier in my family," confessed vet number three, "but if my great grandfather was living today he'd be the most famous man in the world."
"Really? What'd he do?" his friends wanted to know.
"Nothing much. But he would be 165 years old."
In this image, Jesus describes two kings. One is outnumbered, so he wisely approaches the stronger king and makes peace before the battle ever begins. Because we can never win against God, we must surrender to Him. In Jesus’ time a surrendering king could be made into a slave of the opposing king, so it required great humility to bow down and ask for terms of peace. It takes humility today to surrender to Jesus.
You cannot be a student unless you are willing to give up control of your life to Jesus. And that’s hard to do. None of us wants to give up.
I once read about a lifeguard on a beach who saw a drowning man. He walked into the surf but didn’t go out to rescue him. People gathered on the beach and yelled and screamed at the lifeguard to go out and rescue the drowning man. The lifeguard waded a little deeper, and kept his eye on the drowning man, but the yells and screams of the onlookers didn’t motivate him to swim out. Just when it seemed the man was going down for the last time, the lifeguard swam out with strong strokes and grabbed the man and brought him back to shore. After some spitting and coughing, the man was conscious. But rather than hailing him as a hero, the onlookers were angry at the lifeguard and said, “You coward! You saw he was drowning, why didn’t you go out sooner?”
The lifeguard patiently explained, “You can see that he is much bigger and stronger than I am.” If I had gone out sooner, he was thrashing and kicked so violently that he would have probably drowned both of us. As long as he was trying to save himself, I couldn’t save him. But when he got tired, and gave up, then I knew I could save him.”
That’s a great lesson about salvation. As long as you think you are strong enough to save yourself, you won’t surrender to Jesus. It’s only when you give up and realize you are hopelessly lost, that Jesus can come and rescue you. Have you ever come to a place in your life where you have surrendered everything you have and everything you are to Jesus? I think real discipleship is coming to Jesus and saying, “Jesus, I give up. I give up control of my life.”
We know we have surrendered our life to Jesus when we turn to someone we don’t really know, we say “let me buy you a coffee, I will bring my daily devotion book and we can pray”. But when we say, I don’t want to meet new people, I don’t want to have them around my house or go to a coffee shop, I don’t want to pray or ask about their life. Then we reveal that Jesus is not really lord of our lives.
Finally, Jesus used the image of:
5. SALT: STAY PURE TO PRESERVE GOODNESS
34"Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? 35It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out.
"He who has ears to hear, let him hear." (Luke 14: 34- 35)
Salt is a preservative. It really holds flavor. For example, if you chop up some fresh herbs, or even just garlic, the salt will extract the moisture and preserve the flavor.
Sally Schneider (American Chef and Author)
Salt was very valuable during Jesus’ time. Roman soldiers were paid with salt rations. The Latin phrase “Solarium Argentums” is where we get our word “salary.” Even today we speak of someone who is “not worth their salt.” In the time of Jesus the greatest value of salt was in its use as a preservative. Since they didn’t have any way to refrigerate meat, salt would be applied to fresh meat to prevent the meat from rotting. The salt created a chemical reaction that slowed down the process of decay. That’s why Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?” (Matthew 5:13)
We live in a nation suffering from moral decay at an alarming rate. People are suffering from marriage breakdowns, alcoholism etc. As Christians when read the bible, pray with people and ask about their week we are involved in preserving their lives.
As salt, our job is to preserve the goodness that still exists in Australia. Through bible reading, prayer and daily devotions other Christians become convicted about what is wrong in their lives are challenged to become better mothers, fathers and children. By disciplining others we teach them to how to be students of Jesus. By asking how their week is we listen to their story.
But the problem Jesus identified is that some people have lost their saltiness. Salt is made up of two chemicals, sodium and chlorine, and they are happy to become salt. Things work out really well for sodium and chlorine ,they are like the happily married couple that just loves to be married, no matter what hits the fan. The only way salt ceases to be salty is if you dilute it. Allow it to become impure, add new substances. The salt is no longer pure and is not good for anything.
The salt used in the time of Jesus wasn’t mined; it came from the Dead Sea. When the water evaporated, it left salt. But the salt was sometimes so mixed with other minerals that although it looked like salt, and poured like salt, it wasn’t salty. When it was placed on food, it was tasteless. When it was applied to fresh meat, the meat rotted. Jesus warned against the spiritual condition that exists when our lives are not morally pure. When we allow impure thoughts and impure behavior to become mixed in our personality, we lose our saltiness, too. Jesus posed the question, “If salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?” The only thing to do with it was to put it on the road and use it for gravel.
As a community it is easy to be distracted from Jesus. With school work, earning an income, marriage commitments we distracted. When we pray, read the bible and talk about our week it reminds us what the faith is all about.
The National Association of Social Workers in 2000 released an article that reveals pastoral care in churches goes a long way to preventing mental health issues. The problem is not enough people are willing to provide pastoral care and people are falling through the cracks. If we are the salt of the world surely we are the people to pray, read the bible and ask about each other. Surely the new person coming in off the street longs to have someone pray for them, read the bible with them and ask how they are.
CONCLUSION
1. A FAMILY: LOVE JESUS SUPREMELY
2. A CROSS: LIVE LIKE A DEAD PERSON
3. A TOWER: CONSIDER THE VALUE OF A GOOD FINISH
4. A WAR: SURRENDER TO THE STRONGER KING
5. SALT: STAY PURE TO PRESERVE GOODNESS
Are you a real student? Do you want to move from being in the congregation into the church? Do you need to move from the church into the core of committed students? Do you love Jesus more than anyone else, even your family? Are you a dead man walking, carrying your cross? Are you committed to finishing strong for Jesus? Are you constantly surrendering everything you have to Him? Are you willing to stay pure so you can be salt in a rotting world? Jesus is looking for a few good men and women: the humble, the pure, the dead, the committed. Will you decide today to move from being a mere believer and make being a fully devoted follower of Jesus, your goal?
