The Cost Of Discipleship - Part 1 Series

Dr. Bradford Reaves

CrossWay Christian Fellowship

Hagerstown, MD

www.mycrossway.org

The story is told of the military legend Alexander the Great, King of Macedonia (336-323) and conqueror of Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt, Babylonia, and Persia, almost all of the known world.

One day on the warpath, Alexander and small company of soldiers approached a strongly fortified walled city and Alexander raised his voice and demanded to see the king. When the king arrived, Alexander ordered him to surrender the city and everyone inside.

The king laughed, "Why should I surrender to you? You can't do us any harm!"

But Alexander offered to give the king a demonstration. He ordered his men to line up single file and start marching. He marched them straight toward a cliff. The townspeople gathered on the wall and watched in shocked silence as, one by one, his soldiers marched without hesitation right off the cliff to their deaths!

After 10 soldiers died, Alexander ordered the rest of the men to return to his side. The townspeople and the king immediately surrendered to Alexander the Great. They realized that if a few men were actually willing to die at the command of this leader, then nothing could stop his eventual victory.(Dietrich Bonhoeffer: "When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.")

The Christian life is unlike anything you will ever experience in the world. If there is one phrase that defines the life of a true Christian, it is “self-denial.” the more you deny yourself because of the life of Jesus Christ, the more you live according to his word. The more you follow Jesus the more the world will hate you. The more you follow Jesus the more you will be persecuted. The more you follow Jesus the more you will experience spiritual attacks. In other words following Jesus Christ comes at a high price with the world. It will cost you everything. There will be consequences within your relationships, family, jobs, and things you would have never considered. But the decision to follow Christ is your most significant decision ever. This brings us to today's parable:

25 Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and 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. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:25-33)

This passage of scripture contains explicit statements. They challenge those who are casually following Jesus and invite them to come closer, understanding that coming closer means something costly. Three times in this passage, Jesus uses the statement “my disciple, " meaning he is inviting everyone around him to become a true disciple. But there is a standard with that. He also uses the phrase, “you cannot.”

Crossway Christian Fellowship is in the business of making disciples. We are not in the business of drawing large crowds, entertaining people, or making people feel good about themselves. We are in the discipleship business. We are here to make true disciples of Jesus Christ.

Becoming a disciple according to Jesus, is a radical and continual commitment period he is calling out to those of this world, take up your cross and follow me.” This is an invitation to self-denial. There is no glamour. There is no worldly applause. There is no goosebumps or giddiness. This world is no longer your home.

The fact is that More people turned away from Jesus's invitation to follow him than actually followed him.

After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him (John 6:66)

The word “disciple” (mathetes) means learner or student. And it was used in many settings. Most rabbis in Jesus’s day had disciples who followed them and learned from them about Judaism. Jesus is saying if you want to be “my disciple” there is no casualness to this invitation. This is an invitation to abandon the empty promises of this world and follow after the king of the universe. There is no casualness in following him. It is a path to eternal salvation, a path impossible without Jesus Christ. And with the stakes so high the commitment is just as high.