A. I like the old classic joke about the chicken and the pig who were talking about going into business.
1. The chicken says: “Hey Pig, we should open a restaurant.” The pig replies: “I’m not sure, what would we call it?”
2. The chicken answers: “What if we called it ‘Ham and Eggs’?” The pig doesn’t like that idea: “No Thanks, I’d be committed and you’d only be involved.”
3. So the chicken counters: “What if I am committed as well?” The pig asks: “I don’t see how you could be?”
4. The chicken explains: “We can open a place called ‘Wings-N-Ribs’!” The pig answers: “With both of us committed, I’m in!”
B. The big question about discipleship that I want us to wrestle with today is: Am I just involved with Jesus, or am I completely committed to Jesus?
1. In our sermon series on discipleship, we have been trying to understand what it means to be a disciple of Jesus and are realizing that discipleship is a lot more than church membership and church attendance.
2. Last week we explored the call of discipleship and learned that a disciple is someone who is following Jesus, being changed by Jesus, and is committed to the mission of Jesus.
3. Today, we want to explore the cost of discipleship and come to realize that the cost of discipleship is more like the sacrifice the pig makes for bacon than the chicken makes for eggs.
C. Most people really like the Bible verse John 3:16 (and for good reason) – “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, the whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”
1. Back in the day when we could have fans at sporting events, you would often see someone holding a sign with John 3:16 on it.
a. It is an important verse full of God’s love and truth, but the simplicity and brevity of our response (believe) is open to misunderstanding and minimization.
b. Those of us who are committed disciples of Jesus know that believing in Jesus is much more than a decision of the mind, it is a life of trust and obedience to Jesus.
2. A verse in the Bible that we will never see on a sign at a sports stadium is Luke 9:23 because it clearly communicates the cost of discipleship.
a. Luke 9:23 reads: Then he said to them all, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.”
3. Let’s spend a few minutes dissecting this important verse.
D. Let’s start with the first word that stands out in that verse – ANYONE.
1. “If anyone wants to follow after me” – If anyone wants to be a disciple of Jesus.
2. The amazing truth that leaps off the page is “anyone means anyone!”
3. Being a follower of Jesus is an invitation to everyone – no one is excluded from the possibility of being a disciple of Jesus.
4. This means that discipleship isn’t just for a chosen few – an “elect” – so to speak.
5. Anyone is an all-inclusive word – anyone means everyone.
6. No one is too good or too bad to begin to follow after Jesus.
a. So, who is invited to follow Jesus? Anyone and everyone.
b. People with an immoral sexual past? Anyone.
c. People who have worshiped other gods? Anyone.
d. People who have been in trouble with the law and gone to prison? Anyone.
e. People who have had failed marriages? Anyone.
f. People who have been addicted to alcohol, cocaine, pot, gambling or porn? Anyone.
g. What about other kinds of sinners and hypocrites? Anyone.
7. How about that - anyone means me and you and everyone else.
8. Many people think that the excluding factor for discipleship has to do with a person’s past life and behavior, but that is one of the devil’s lies – salvation and discipleship is open to anyone.
9. As we continue to dissect this verse from Luke 9, we will see that the greatest excluding factors for discipleship have to do with the cost everyone must be willing to pay when they decide to accept Jesus’ invitation.
E. The next important words are “wants to follow after me” or “would come after me” - this phrase describes a passionate pursuit.
1. Jesus wants us to understand that following him is a pursuit that requires everything we have.
2. Jesus tells a parable in Matthew 13 called “The Pearl of Great Price” and it gives us a good illustration of what Jesus means by pursuing Him.
a. Jesus said: “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure, buried in a field, that a man found and reburied. Then in his joy he goes and sells everything he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. When he found one priceless pearl, he went and sold everything he had and bought it” (Mt. 13:44-46).
b. In Bible times, people would often bury their savings in the ground because that was considered a safe place, especially during times of war or government upheaval.
c. It would not have been uncommon for a person to bury their treasure and then die in war or die from some other cause without someone knowing where the treasure was buried.
3. So in the story that Jesus tells He imagines a man who happened to be digging in a certain field (maybe treasure hunting) and he discovers a treasure.
a. What does the man do? He reburies the treasure and goes and buys the field.
b. The person who sells him the field has no idea a treasure is buried there.
c. The man is so desperate to buy the field he liquidates his assets to get enough cash.
d. His family and friends may think he has lost his mind, because it doesn’t make sense.
e. But the truth is, this is the best investment that man could make.
f. The same lesson is conveyed in the story of the finding of the priceless pearl.
4. When we discover the life that we can have in Jesus, then we are to come after Jesus like this man pursued the pearl of great price.
a. Disciples of Jesus understand that following Jesus is a pursuit that may cost them everything, but it is the best investment they could ever make.
F. Once we get beyond the fact that the invitation to discipleship is open to everyone and that it must be a passionate pursuit, the cost of discipleship becomes clearer in the phrase “he must deny himself” – we learn from this phrase that discipleship is a total surrender.
1. We can’t follow after Jesus without denying ourselves.
2. What does it mean to deny ourselves? It doesn’t mean that we deny our own existence, but it does mean that we deny ourselves the right to do our own thing and live for self alone.
3. It should be no surprise to us why discipleship and Christianity have fallen on hard times in our day and our culture that is all about us and our rights.
4. Perhaps the story in Matthew 19 of the young man whom we call the “Rich Young Ruler” is a good example of what it means for us to deny ourselves.
a. He asked Jesus a good question – “What good must I do to have eternal life?”
b. Jesus told the young man that he must keep the commandments.
c. The young man said that he had followed all of God’s commands, but does he lack anything else?
d. Jesus said that if he wants to be perfect (complete), then he should sell his possessions and give the money to the poor and come follow Jesus.
5. The rich young man was faced with the choice of following Jesus or keeping his stuff, but he couldn’t do both.
a. There was no way to follow Jesus without denying himself.
b. Sometimes we make this story all about money, but it’s not as much about money as it is about following Jesus.
c. Jesus clarifies the crossroads that this man found himself at – he could follow the path that leads to money, or he could follow the path the leads to Jesus, but he couldn’t do both.
d. Everyone who follows Jesus finds themselves at the similar crossroads – in order to follow Jesus, we must walk away from the path of self.
e. Anyone who follows Jesus must deny himself or herself.
6. Can you see why the call and cost of discipleship is so at odds with American individualism?
a. Our American culture of consumers approaches the church asking, “What can Jesus and the church do for me?” but Jesus’ call of discipleship says, “This is what you must do for Jesus.”
b. The modern church says, “Whatever you want you can get here” whereas Jesus says, “deny yourself and give up everything to follow me.”
7. Christianity and discipleship are about Jesus being the King of His kingdom and we are His subjects.
a. Jesus is the Master and Lord and we are His slaves.
b. I know that slavery is an awful thing to have forced upon someone – for a person to have their rights and choices stripped from them against their will is a terrible thing.
c. But what if on the other hand, a person chooses to be a slave or servant of a master?
d. The great apostles who wrote the New Testament all identified themselves as slaves and servants of Christ.
e. And when we choose to follow Jesus we agree to become His servants.
8. There’s an interesting and wonderful concept in the Old Testament about a person who chooses to be a bondslave after their required time of service is over.
a. Deuteronomy 15:16-17 says: But if your slave says to you, “I don’t want to leave you,” because he loves you and your family, and is well off with you, take an awl and pierce through his ear into the door, and he will become your slave for life.
b. Question: Why would a person choose to continue to be a slave after his or her time of service was over?
c. Answer – Because they love their master and family, and they realize they are better off as a slave of that master than as a freeman.
d. In like manner, out of our love for Jesus and our knowledge that being a servant of Jesus is what is best for us, we choose to be a slave of Christ.
e. When we truly surrender ourselves to Jesus in slavery, that’s when we find real freedom.
9. The Bible says that the rich young ruler went away sad because he was rich – Doesn’t that sound strange? He was sad, because he was rich!
a. What he should have been sad about was choosing to go in the wrong direction.
b. He thought that denying himself all his stuff would make him sad, but when we deny ourselves and follow Jesus we find real joy.
10. Let’s think about what blessings come to us as servants of God.
a. Our Master owns the cattle on a thousand hills, and He can provide for us.
b. Our Master has power over everything and He can protect us.
c. Our Master is full of grace and mercy and He forgives us.
d. And our Master is so gracious that He doesn’t think of us as slaves, but adopts us into His family as sons and daughters.
11. Isn’t it amazing how much better off we end up being by denying ourselves and surrendering ourselves to God!
G. There is one more challenging phrase in the verse in Luke 9:23 – “take up your cross daily.”
1. As those who want to follow after Jesus, denying ourselves involves a daily death.
2. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Christian minister, theologian and martyr, wrote: “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”
3. The symbol that represents Christianity and discipleship is the cross.
a. Would you have preferred if a different symbol had been chosen?
b. How about a dove – the symbol of peace?
c. Or how about a rainbow – the symbol of hope and promise?
d. Or how about a shepherd’s staff – the symbol of protection and leadership?
4. Rather than any of those symbols, Jesus chose the symbol of the cross: “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Lk. 9:23).
a. We might try to sanitize the symbol by turning into an ornament or a piece of jewelry, but make no mistake about it – the cross is an instrument of torture and death.
b. For the Jewish people in the time of Jesus, the cross was a means of execution that the Romans used to force them into submission.
c. When Jesus made that statement, the people heard and understood that the cross is the symbol of humiliation, suffering and death.
5. Therefore, when Jesus says that His followers must take up their cross daily, He is inviting us to die to ourselves – to die to our own desires, pursuits, and plans.
a. As followers of Jesus, we must make the every day decision to die to ourselves and to live for Christ.
b. Our cross to bear is not just some challenging situation or responsibility in our lives, rather the taking up our cross is the turning over of our whole selves and lives to God.
c. C.S. Lewis put it this way in Mere Christianity: Christ says, “Give me all. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want you. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and there. I want to have the whole tree down. I don’t want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out.”
d. In 1 Corinthians 15:31, Paul wrote: “I die daily” and so should all disciples of Jesus.
e. Every morning we have to crawl out of bed and crawl back on the altar and die to ourselves so that we can live for Jesus.
6. In the next verse of Luke 9, Jesus explained, “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will save it.”
a. It is only by dying to ourselves that we truly find life.
b. Taking up a cross and dying to self sounds like torture and we think that such a decision would make us miserable.
c. But when we do it, when we die to ourselves and take up our cross, we find the surprising side effect of dying to Christ – we discover true life.
d. We find that giving up our lives gives us the life we so desperately wanted all along.
H. So as we move toward the conclusion of this lesson on the cost of discipleship, let’s look at another section of Luke where Jesus taught about the cost of discipleship.
1. In Luke 14, we read: 25 Now great crowds were traveling with him. So he turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, and even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple” (Lk. 14:25-27).
a. This language of Jesus about hating our families and our own lives is shocking and troubling, but Jesus uses this language to help us understand what discipleship means.
b. In reality, Jesus doesn’t want us to hate our families or our own lives, but compared to our commitment to Jesus, our commitment to our families and own lives looks like hatred.
c. We must love everyone and everything else so much less than we love Jesus.
2. Then Jesus gives two illustrations to aid our understanding: 28 “For which of you, wanting to build a tower, doesn’t first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, after he has laid the foundation and cannot finish it, all the onlookers will begin to ridicule him, 30 saying, ‘This man started to build and wasn’t able to finish.’
31 “Or what king, going to war against another king, will not first sit down and decide if he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 If not, while the other is still far off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. (Lk. 14:28-32)
a. There’s a humorous TV commercial that is a good illustration of the tower story.
1. The commercial shows a man sitting in a tattoo parlor expressing his love for Donna by getting her name tattooed on his arm.
2. Halfway through the process he asks how much this will cost, the tattoo artist replies $50.
3. The man says, “I only have $41.00!
4. The next scene shows the couple on the sidewalk outside of the tattoo parlor with Donna storming off and the man yelling after her, “I’ll get it finished later!”
5. The camera zooms onto the tattoo which reads: “I love Don.” (just 2 letters short!)
b. Whether it’s a tower or a tattoo, starting and not finishing is worse than not starting at all.
1. A person better be sure they have counted the cost before beginning a construction project, because a half-finished tower is a worthless waste of money.
c. In the same way, we had better count the cost of being a disciple before we start to follow Christ.
1. If we start to follow Jesus without knowing and agreeing to the cost, we may get into it and stop following Jesus because the cost is higher than we were willing to pay.
2. Disciples of Jesus who will be blessed in the end must continue with Jesus to the end.
d. The second illustration is about counting the cost of war before you begin.
1. If your opponent has a much bigger and stronger army, then you will likely not only lose the battle, but be annihilated.
2. If you know you can’t win the battle, then it is better to surrender and come to terms of peace.
e. God, of course, is way bigger and stronger than us, we can’t win against God in any shape or form, so it is better to accept God’s terms of peace rather than be condemned eternally.
1. In the end, we will realize that surrendering to God and receiving God’s peace, is in our best interests and will lead to a better outcome than we could ever achieve for ourselves.
3. Jesus concludes: 33 “In the same way, therefore, every one of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.”
a. Billy Graham used to say: “Salvation is free, but discipleship costs everything we have.”
b. In the end, the cost of discipleship is everything – all that we are and have must be turned over for God’s service.
4. Back in college we used to do a skit about discipleship where a person comes to Jesus and says they want to be saved.
a. Jesus tells them it will cost them everything they are and have.
b. The person struggles with the decision, but then brings everything they have and are and lays them before Jesus.
c. The skit ends with Jesus telling the person that they are now His and are saved, but they can go home with their life and their stuff, but Jesus may come by at any minute to use them and their things.
d. When we become disciples of Jesus, we turn over to God all that we are and have, and make ourselves and our stuff available for God’s service.
e. God is then the Owner and Master, and we are His stewards and managers.
I. We can summarize what we have learned today with two questions.
1. Who can be a disciple? Everyone!
2. What does it cost to be a disciple? Everything!
3. If you are a disciple of Jesus, then I want to encourage you to examine yourself:
a. Are you paying the cost of discipleship?
b. Are you denying yourself and taking up your cross daily and following Jesus?
4. If you are not yet a disciple of Jesus, but are thinking about becoming a disciple, then I want you to know that it is the very best choice you can make.
a. But I also want you to know that it is a costly choice.
b. I hope that everyone will choose to be a disciple of Jesus, but I also hope that everyone who is choosing to follow Jesus will also understand the cost and be willing to pay the cost of discipleship.
Resources:
The Disciple Maker’s Handbook, Bobby Harrington & Josh Patrick, Zondervan, 2017.
Not a Fan, Kyle Idleman, Zondervan, 2011.
What Does It Cost To Be A Disciple? Sermon by K. Edward Skidmore, SermonCentral.com.
