THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP
Mk. 8:31-38
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. A teacher with obvious liberal tendencies told her class of small children that she was an atheist. She asked her class, “How many of you want to be atheists too?” Not knowing what atheism is, but wanting to be like their teacher, their hands shot into the air like fleshy fireworks.
2. There was, however, one exception. A little girl named Lucy had not gone along with the crowd. The teacher asked her why she had decided to be different.
3. "Because, I’m not an atheist." “Then,” said the teacher, "What are you?" "I’m a Christian." The teacher was a little perturbed now, her face slightly red. She asked Lucy why she was a Christian.
4. "Well, I was brought up knowing and loving Jesus. My mom is a Christian, and my dad is a Christian, so I am a Christian." The teacher was now angry. "That’s no reason," she says loudly.
5. "What if your mom was an idiot and your dad was an idiot. What would you be then?" Lucy paused, smiled and said, "Then, I’d be an atheist!"
B. TEXT
1. 31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” 34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? 37 Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.” Mk. 8:31-38
TITLE: “THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP.”
I. JESUS MAKES TWO CORRECTIONS
A. 1ST – THE FAULTY MESSIAH IDEA (vs. 31)
1. Just before this (vss. 27-30), Peter had made his great confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah the Jews had been waiting 1,000s of years for.
2. Jesus thought this was the right time to tell them, that His Messiahship, would not fit the standard Jewish conception – He was going to suffer and be killed!
3. This was a shocker. The Jews believed their Messiah would conquer all the world’s powers and set up an earthly kingdom (which He will later). They just didn’t know He had to redeem the world by substitutionary atonement first.
B. PETER’S WRONG THINKING (vss. 32-33)
1. Verse 32 says that Peter “took” Him. The Greek word is proslambano and means “took hold of Him” as if to hinder Him. He began to rebuke the Lord for saying He would suffer.
2. The Jew’s teaching was that God would protect the truly righteous person from suffering. We have that thinking today. Christians who suffer often think God has let them down.
3. The Apostles came to understand the exact opposite: suffering is expected if you’re a true Christian. “All who live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” 2 Tim. 3:12; and we’re “counted worthy to suffer shame for his name” Acts 5:41; “For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him” Phip. 1:29; “if we suffer, we shall also reign with him” 2 Tim. 2:12. (see also 1 Pet. 3:14; 4:19).
4. Peter loved Jesus and didn’t want Him to suffer, but he didn’t understand God’s plan. The Cross of Christ was a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to everyone else, but it was the power of God and the wisdom of God! It was God’s way of saving the world!
5. Jesus, in verse 34A, felt that willingness to suffer for the kingdom by His followers, was so important that He called all His disciples and the crowd together to exhort them to make the ultimate commitment.
II. COST OF BEING A DISCIPLE OF JESUS
A. REQUIRES SELF DENIAL (vs. 34B)
JESUS DISCOURAGED PEOPLE FROM FOLLOWING HIM
1. Often people declared that they wished to follow Jesus; to become His disciples. What strikes me as unusual is the way in which Jesus handles these inquirers. MOST pastors would be trying to recruit as MANY as followers as possible, but Jesus takes a radically different approach: He usually tried to DISSUADE men from following after Him - or at least that’s what it looks like.
2. ILLUS.: THE OLD PASTOR’S ADVICE
a. A young minister once asked an aging pastor he respected advice on pastoring. The old man said to him, “Son, always endeavor to keep your church as SMALL as you can!”
b. That’s strange talk isn’t it?! But he meant, “Preach the truth and the demands of following Jesus SO CLEARLY, that ONLY those who have counted the cost and are ready to give up ALL for Christ will join themselves to you.”
c. Friends, it’s my desire to see as many as possible come to Christ - BUT I DON‘T JUST WANT TO GET A CROWD, I want them to be true, sold out disciples of Jesus. Hallelujah!
3. Jesus wasn’t really trying to discourage them, He wants them to think it through first…to count the cost… so that once they DO follow Him they’ll never turn back.
B. REQUIRES SURRENDER OF SELF-WILL
1. TAKING UP YOUR CROSS IS A CHOICE (vs. 35).
QUESTION: WHY MUST THERE BE THE CROSS? Because...
a. It sifts our Faith: do we believe the unseen over the seen?
b. It humbles the Intellect: it sounds foolish.
c. It humbles the Pride: we must submit to another.
d. It makes us indebted to Christ: We OWE Him, and some people hate to owe anybody.
e. In addition, we’re called to prepare to be shamed as part of the deal. We have to love Him so much that we’re willing to be shamed for Him. These test the disciple’s allegiance to Christ. Only those who can pass these tests are worthy to be a disciple of Jesus.
2. IT PICTURES THE JOURNEY OF DISCIPLESHIP
a. In Matt. 10:38 Jesus added these words: “Whoever does not take up their cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me.”
b. His words must have had a sobering effect. They mean that when I follow Jesus, the old self-determining, self-absorbed me, must be crucified. My old self must be put to death. I must consider myself dead to sin, and alive to God.
c. Just as Jesus took the road to Golgotha, the same path is the way of life to us. To live, we must first die! The cross is the “eye of the needle” we must pass through. It is the Gethsemane (“oil-press”) we must go through. The Cross is the nexus of history that separates humanity into either the Redeemed or the Rejected!
3. A CHOICE THAT WILL AFFECT OUR SOUL (36-37).
ILLUS.: THE PROBLEM OF PARTIAL SURRENDER
a. A wicked man owned a thousand-acre ranch. A man he considered his enemy offered to buy it.
b. The wicked man agreed, except for one acre right in the center of the property. The buyer thought it over. He didn’t see any problem with that. After all, he would still own 999 acres. So he bought it.
c. Then, to his dismay, the wicked seller demanded and got in court, the right to build a road all the way across the property to his one acre, and all the rest was spoiled.
d. So it is with us as Christians; if we make less than a full surrender to God, even holding out just one small area, the devil has the right of access to cross all of our life to get to that one area.
C. REJECT THE WORLD’S PEER PRESSURE 38, “ashamed”
1. To the world, following Christ is foolishness: to them, He died 2,000 years ago & is irrelevant. Giving up the pleasures of this life for a dead carpenter seems crazy, especially since He was crucified in weakness. Jesus knew the world would shame His followers and warned us to make a choice. If we bear shame with Him now, we’ll share in His glory for all eternity.
2. Bishop Hooper said, “Life is sweet and death is bitter, but eternal death is more bitter, and eternal life is more sweet.” The joys of heaven with Christ for eternity will far outweigh the losses of this life’s 70 years. The gain of $60 billion is insignificant, compared to losing one’s soul for eternity!
D. THE TWO CHOICES
1. Making a choice is unavoidable. Some of you haven't made up your mind yet.
2. It is high time you did; it’s a dreadful thing to stand midway between God and the devil, between heaven and hell -- when actually, the ground beneath you is about to fall into hell!
3. The Lord Jesus said, "He that is not with Me, is against Me, and he who gathers not with Me, scatters." This decision should be made at once. Every hour makes it more likely that you will make the wrong choice. Delay is dangerous, for it breeds a new disease -- trifling with God.
4. This decision shouldn't even be difficult. How logical is it to oppose the Creator who holds your life in His hands?
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUS.: THE CROSS IS THE POWER OF GOD
1. 1 Cor. 1:18 says, “For the preaching of the CROSS is to them that perish foolishness; but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” The Greek word for “power” used in this verse is dunamis, the word from which we get our English word dynamo, a generator of electrical power.
2. About 300 Amps of electricity come into our house. If I put my finger in a light socket, you'd expect that I might get electrocuted. But I won't get electrocuted – not if I've got the fuse in my pocket. It doesn't matter how many volts are connected up to my house if I've unplugged the fuse.
3. According to 1 Cor. 1:18, the message of the Cross is the power of God, and the Cross is like the fuse. If we don't live in the way of the Cross, we remove the fuse from our lives and block the high voltage of the power of God.
4. To release the power of God we need an uninterrupted connection to the source. Only when we fully surrender our lives and die to ourselves, is the full power of Jesus’ Cross allowed to flow into us in salvation and deliverance!
B. THE CALL
1. DON’T SPURN THE PRICELESS SACRIFICE OF JESUS! Jesus said, “Greater love has no man than this; that a man lay down his life for his friends” Jn. 15:13.
2. Jesus’ “greater love” was demonstrated by His willingness to die like a criminal (between 2 thieves), beaten, crucified, forsaken by the Father, bearing all the sins of the world, and dying by suffocation! Only greatest love would suffer that for you and I.
3. Shall we not respond with greatest fervency to such a great love? If such a great price must be paid to redeem us, shall we neglect so great a salvation? Will we trample on the sacred blood of God’s own Son and despise His love?
4. Let us repent and humbly surrender to the One who loved us so much. Prayer.
