Let’s get to our passage. Turn over to Matthew 16. This passage might be pretty familiar to you, but that’s ok. When you get to Matthew 16, we’ll read verse 24. Pay attention to this passage…as it lays the foundation for what we’re studying today. Let’s read our passage for today…again, it’s Matthew 16:24.
It says: 24Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”
So last week we started a series about making disciples. That’s what we’re all called to do ourselves as…disciples…of Jesus. It was his commission to his original twelve and it’s the commission that still stands for Christians and the church today. So that’s what we need to do if we’re not already doing it.
We began with the description of a disciple…who we are to be today as disciples of Jesus because…if we’re going to make disciples as we’ve been instructed, we need to make sure we’re living up to that calling ourselves. If we’re not true disciples, then we’re not going to make disciples. Or if we do…we’re going to struggle mightily. We talked about how a disciple is a “repenter,” a “follower,” and a “student.”
Now this week…we’re moving from the definition of a disciple… who we are to be…to the requirements of a disciple. Basically, it’s just a continuation of what we talked about last week because, really…who a disciple is and what a disciple does are one and the same. But there’s more ground that we need to cover for ourselves as disciples before we can move on to making disciples.
*Perhaps…the first disciple we need to make…is the one we look at in the mirror. Many of us have called ourselves “Christians” for years. But we’ve never considered ourselves as disciples…which we need to do since, as we talked about last week…you can’t be a Christian and not a disciple and vice versa. So let’s get into more of what is required of us.
**Turn over to 1 Corinthians 6. Now, within the context of this passage, starting in verse 12, Paul writes about the dangers of sexual immorality. So it’s within that context that he writes the words we’re about to read in verses 19-20, but they also apply to other parts of our lives as disciples as well.
There, Paul writes: “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” So what’s one of the requirements of a disciple? A disciple submits to the Lord.
How many of you have seen that word “Lord” in your bible before? It’s there, right? It’s constantly showing up. If you have a concordance, it’s the longest word with the most references. In the Old Testament it shows up in all capital letters because the Hebrew name for the Lord, “Yahweh,”…or, what we think is “Yahweh”…is written. In the New Testament it’s not all caps because it’s the Greek word “Kurios.”
So this word is scattered all throughout God’s word. But have we ever stopped to think about what that word “Lord” really means for our lives? Because…the truth is…“Lord” is more than just another title for God in scripture. It’s not just another description of who he is. No…as Lord…that means something for us as his disciples today.
When you start to think of it in terms of your own life…do you realize what “Lord” means? It means he “Lords” over you, right? It means he is the one who rules you. It means…as Paul wrote back in 1 Corinthians…that you are not your own. You were bought at a price. And so…if you are really a disciple…then that means you are required to submit to your…Lord. That includes God Almighty, yes. And it also includes Jesus since they are together as one.
But this is something that a lot of Christians struggle with… preventing them from living as true disciples. A lot of people sitting in churches today have come up with their own version of Christianity or discipleship with looks nothing like what Jesus did during his ministry or what his disciples did in starting the early church!
We read this book, but we don’t truly submit our lives to what it says. We pick and choose the parts that we like most…what we do well at…but we don’t really submit to our Lord…we don’t really submit to Jesus! We think we’re smart enough or clever enough or capable enough to live the Christian life…a disciple’s life…as we see fit. But the reality is we fall far short!
And we know this based on something else that Paul wrote, which we read in Ephesians 2:8-9. There, it says: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works so that no one can boast.” Through Jesus’ death on the cross…we have been bought by God! Through his sacrifice and resurrection, we receive God’s grace. And when we acknowledge our faith in him through confessing and baptism…we have no reason to boast or brag. On our own…we’re not enough! That’s what we read in Romans 10:9 which says: “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, you will be saved.”
*We needed God to send us Jesus! Yet…as we said…we live our Christian lives…we live out our “discipleship” like we’ve got it all figured out on our own! The thing is…our own thinking on discipleship doesn’t line up with what God’s word says is discipleship. … Instead, what we need to do is submit to the one who bought us! Doing anything besides submitting…is going to cause us to not live up to who we’re supposed to be as Christians…and we won’t fulfill a requirement we’re given if we’re going to be his disciples.
**Now, going along with that…is our next requirement for discipleship. This one kind of goes hand in hand with the first. Let’s read Matthew 22:37-40. Here, the Pharisees have gotten together to test Jesus with the question of what the greatest commandment in the law was.
So Jesus replies starting in verse 37: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and Prophets hand on these two commandments.” So here’s the second requirement: a disciple loves the Lord.
You could say that a disciple is required to love the Lord and love other people…but if you truly love God then loving others should just naturally happen. So we’ll just stick with loving the Lord this morning with that in mind. If you need to, you can add it to your notes in your bulletin insert. But I know you all are smart people, so you probably don’t need to.
Anyway…it seems obvious that we love the Lord…that we love Jesus our Messiah as a requirement for being a disciple, right? But… think about how infrequently you love the Lord in any one of those ways…with your heart or soul or mind. The reason being…you instead love something or someone else with your heart or your soul or your mind. … When we think of all those other things we love before him we realize just how often we fall short of this requirement.
But it’s a requirement nonetheless. So…why is it required for disciples to love the Lord? To find one answer, let’s read 1 John 4:19. There, John writes: “We love because he first loved us.” The only reason we are able to love…whether it’s loving God or loving others…is because God loved us first…made most evident through him sending Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. …
*Now…while it’s good that we know that…it does us no good if we don’t know how we should love God with everything that we are. So what should our love look like? Well…a little bit earlier in John’s letter, in 3:16 he wrote: “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.” (Real quickly, did you catch how our love for God impacts how we love others? Again…you can’t love others without loving God.)
But that gives us a pretty vivid picture, doesn’t it? We should be willing…like Jesus did for us…to lay down our lives for our Lord. Right now that’s not necessary. But if we’re struggling with loving God before everyone and everything else, then we’re going to struggle with loving him in that way…in a way that we’re willing to lay down our very lives for him.
Jesus gives us another way we are required to love God in John 14:15. There, he tells his disciples: “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” We live our lives based on this word that we’ve been given. There’s a lot in here. But if you’re not living with this as your foundation…including the command to make disciples…then you aren’t fulfilling your requirement as a disciple. …
*But if you do love him…well, let’s read what Peter says in 1 Peter 1:8. Because we see the fallout from loving God in our lives: “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” Even though we can’t see God…we love him. Or…we are called to love him. If we can do that…what an amazing promise is given there, don’t you think?
**But wait…there’s more! While being filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy and receiving the goal of our faith (the salvation of our souls) sounds good…submitting to and loving the Lord aren’t the only requirements for us as disciples. One other requirement…is that a disciple counts the cost.
There are so many wonderful promises and rewards that come with discipleship. And while those may be things we want for our lives…we really need to consider what is asked of us as Christians…as disciples. Because if we aren’t willing to fulfill these requirements and the others we find in scripture…then we’ll miss out on all those wonderful things.
In Luke 14, starting in verse 26, Jesus tells a large crowd the cost of being his disciple. He says: “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. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 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? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ 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? 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 the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.” …
Wow. I mean…wow. Submitting to the Lord? Loving God? Those are things we might do pretty well. But have you considered the cost in terms of what Jesus just laid out there? “Love and follow me to such a degree that your love for your family seems non-existent. Set aside your own wants and desires so that you can pick up a cross and follow me daily. Give up…everything…you have.” Does he say you can love others before him? No. Does he say you can carry your cross on Sunday morning, evening, and Wednesday evening? No. Does he say give up a little, or some, or most of what you have? … No. That’s why it’s a requirement to count the cost.
*Because if you’re not willing to do those things…then you can’t be his disciple. And…as we said last week…if you aren’t living up to the description of a disciple…if you aren’t fulfilling the requirements of a disciple…then you aren’t his disciple. And…because disciple and Christian are supposed to be the same thing…if you aren’t a disciple… you aren’t a Christian.
****So are you counting the cost…and living as his disciple anyway? Really…it doesn’t make sense to be a disciple…from a worldly perspective. But when we come to God through Jesus we shouldn’t be living from a worldly perspective. And we should know that there are blessings in store for us when we are a disciple.
But before we get into how we go about making disciples…take a look at your own life. Do you fit the description of a disciple? Do you fulfill the requirements? Let’s make sure we do. And let’s get started.
Invitation
