The Call To Discipleship Part 1: Not For The Faint-Hearted Series

In this sin sick world we live in, the prevailing attitude is “What’s in it for me?” Even in the church, people choose their church as to what will benefit me the most. Where can I get my needs met. Rarely do you hear of people who feel called to a church because of what they can contribute vice what I can get.

We are dealing with what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. We may say we follow Jesus, but do we try to imitate the Master? Or are we in church just because we have no better place to be? Are we in church following the crowds (the crowds in church are getting fewer and fewer.) Are we only in church when it does not cost us much in terms of time and resources?

We are going to look at our “Call to Discipleship” over the next few weeks. We follow Jesus based on our image of Jesus.

There’s TV Jesus, who says: "If you follow me, you will have the life you always wanted. Money! Wealth! Big house! Fancy plane! Unending health!"

There’s Hollywood Jesus who is mild and kind and never asks for anything difficult.

There’s the Magic Eight Ball Jesus who’s good for quick guidance or the life preserver Jesus who rescues us when we get into trouble.

Then there’s the Political Jesus, who wants to take over the American government with Christians and transform the entire nation into a "Christian Nation."

The fact is we all have an image of who Jesus is and the roles we want him to play for our benefit. Jesus challenges us when he says, “You don’t seek me for who I really am, you seek me because I give you bread.” (John 6:26ff) And, if we’re honest, our view of Jesus and the role we want him to play in our lives doesn’t quite match up with the Jesus of the Gospels.[1]

Let look at our call to discipleship. As we look at the real of Jesus of the Gospels, we will see that His call to us is not for the faint hearted. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said in his book “The Cost of Discipleship,” “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”

We want to think of the Christian life as all happiness and roses, but that only shows that we have not read the Word. Today we will read from the Gospel of Mark at what Jesus had to say to those who would follow Him.

Mark 8:34–38

Today, August 8th, marks a kind of anniversary for me. It was 48 years ago today, August 8, 1973, fresh out of high school, I signed the papers and swore an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States and was officially inducted into the Army and that same day I was shipped straight off to basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.

I spent 7½ years in the Army and a little over 17 years in the Air Force. Most of you know I had spent most of those years, both in the Army and in the Air Force as a pilot. Many regard those in the military as just a another job with a regimented lifestyle. But it has been pointed out time and time again, there is a huge difference between civilians and the military member, whether they be a soldier, airman, or sailor. They are someone who, at one point in their life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America," for an amount of "up to and including THEIR LIFE."

There are those who gave their all on the battlefield or training field. There are even more who were marked for life by wounds received, whether physical or mental.

To those of us who truly follow Jesus, we have written a similar blank check. We have committed to Jesus all, even if it cost us our health, wealth, prosperity and our very lives. To follow Jesus, to be his disciple, is much like the Army today. You have to volunteer. There are no draftees today. I was at the very beginning of the all-volunteer Army, because they stopped the draft the year I volunteered. No one is Christian because they were drafted.

I do believe there are a few, like I had in my basic training platoon, those who “volunteered” because the local judge gave them a choice between jail time or the Army. There are those who come to Christ because there was nowhere else to go. there are those who came to Christ because God allowed to to fall so low that the only way they could see daylight was to look up. Nevertheless, without pushing the comparison too far, all volunteered to be a Christian. No one made you believe. As someone once said: “Salvation is free, but discipleship is to the death.”