Our theme for 2016 is Dynamic Disciples and this morning I want us to consider our commitment to being a disciple of Christ.
In the New Testament the word Disciple is used to describe the people who are committed to following Jesus Christ.
To be a true disciple of Jesus requires real commitment.
True discipleship involves our deep commitment to our Lord and Saviour, allowing His life to infuse our own, so that we become more like Him.
We have been called to live according to God’s plan and purpose, we have been chosen, set apart, forgiven and saved to live for Christ.
A commitment to following Christ and His teaching is central to our faith.
Are you fully committed to following the commands and precepts of our Lord and Saviour?
Are you fully commited or is something or someone holding you back from real commitment to Christ?
Are you stopping yourself from being a fully committed disciple of Christ?
In Mark 8:34 Jesus said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me.” (Mark 8:34)
This is a command of Jesus that requires real commitment from us His disciples.
A commitment to consider God’s ways more important than our own.
A commitment to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Jesus.
Let me put this verse into context for you.
Jesus had begun to to prepare His disciples for the crucifixion He knew what would soon happen to Him.
At this point in time, the disciples didn’t really understand what was going to happen, they could not reconcile death on a cross with a triumphant king, with a triumphant Messiah.
Jesus tells them that they, too, must willing go to the cross.
Listen to Mark 8:34 – 38:
Jesus said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. 35 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it. 36 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?
37 Is anything worth more than your soul? 38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when He returns in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” Mark 8:34 – 38
Powerful words, perhaps painful words, but they are words that demand our full promise of commitment.
All of our sin can be traced to a love for self.
Sins of the flesh, sins of the spirit, sins of omission and sins of commission.
We sin because, by our very nature, we care more about our wants, our needs, our desires, than being obedient to God’s will and commands for our life.
The world we live in proclaims, you have rights, you should have what you want - when you want it,
it’s all about self-gratification, its about feeding our desires, our ego, our love of self.
We live in a greedy, selfish, sin-sick world.
Yet Jesus tells us, don’t be selfish.
You could gain the whole world and destroy your soul in the process.
Nothing is more important than your eternal soul.
Except perhaps where a soul will spend eternity, in Heaven or in Hell.
In Matthew 7:13-14 Jesus spoke these words:
“You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.”
Sobering words, ignore God, reject Jesus as Saviour, follow the broad ways of the world to hell or obey God, accept Jesus as Saviour and be assured of salvation and a place in Heaven.
The Good News is that Jesus has paid the price for our sin, for all who believe in Him there is the free offer of salvation for eternity.
We can be saved, we can be set free, we can be redeemed and we can be assured of a place in Heaven because of what Christ has done.
When we accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour we can no longer live however we want.
We can no longer behave however we want.
In John 14 verses 23-24 Jesus said “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them. Anyone who doesn’t love me will not obey me. And remember, my words are not my own. What I am telling you is from the Father who sent me.”
Jesus is the only way of salvation and we are called to follow Him and to obey His commands out of love.
We are meant to live an alternative life, a life of faith, a life of service, a life of trust, a life of faithfulness, we are called to live holy lives.
In Galatians 2:20-21 the Apostle Paul said “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. 21 I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless.”
When we come to Jesus, when we accept Him as Lord and Saviour, we are making a promise to commit our whole life to Him.
Our whole life, not just a couple of hours on a Sunday when we can be bothered to actually go to Church.
Full commitment, full surrender, to God’s will and purpose for us.
When we come to Christ, we are making a promise that God will be at the Centre of our lives.
Not at the edges, the centre.
When God is truly placed at the Centre of our lives, that’s when our focus is on serving Christ and not our selfish desires.
As Christians, we are meant to be people who have died to self and sin, we are meant to be people who are willing to live our lives for God.
Consider the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 6:6-14
6 We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. 7 For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin.
8 And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with Him. 9 We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and He will never die again. Death no longer has any power over Him.
10 When He died, He died once to break the power of sin. But now that He lives, He lives for the glory of God. 11 So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.
12 Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires. 13 Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God.
14 Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace.
(Romans 6:6-14)
Friends, it’s only when we crucify self that we live in genuine repentance.
The Greek word that Jesus used for repentance (metanoia) means “a change of mind.”
When we change our mind about something, we also change our attitude toward it.
When we change our attitude then we are likely to change our actions.
When we accept Christ as Lord and Saviour, when we repent, when we “change our minds” about sinful behaviour, that is when we make the commitment to God to stop loving only self and start loving God.
That is when we make the commitment to consider the needs of others and not just our wants and desires.
That is when we make the commitment to serve Him and place His will and purposes above our own.
It’s a commitment to a change of mind and a change of attitude that should be evident in our actions and the way we live each day of our lives.
Jesus taught this is a necessity for a true disciple.
It is an an absolute requirement.
Jesus also made it plain there is a cost involved in our promise to follow Him.
Listen to these words of Jesus from Luke 14:
25 A large crowd was following Jesus. He turned around and said to them, 26 “If you want to be my disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple. 27 And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple.
28 “But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it? 29 Otherwise, you might complete only the foundation before running out of money, and then everyone would laugh at you. 30 They would say, ‘There’s the person who started that building and couldn’t afford to finish it!’
33 So you cannot become my disciple without giving up everything you own.
Being a disciple is not the easy option.
True discipleship is demanding, it requires our promise to commit our lives to God’s purposes and plans.
Work, Family, Friends, Hobbies, everything else is supposed to take 2nd place to God in our lives.
We are to place Him first in comparison to everyone and everything that could hinder us from being the people He has saved us to be.
I will close with this (as we come to our time of communion)
At the Cross of Christ we see God’s commitment to us, we see His unconditional love for us.
Just as He has promised to save us we have made a commitment to love Him, to follow Him, to serve Him in love.
As dynamic disciples we need to really take up our cross and commit to following Jesus every day.
We need to be committed to loving Jesus more than anyone or anything else.
We need to respond to the call to commitment and really be committed disciples of Christ.
This morning let me encourage you to renew your commitment to really give God your soul, your life, and your all for His honour and His Glory.
