Sermon Central
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The Journey Of The Christian Life
Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Jan 4, 2021 (message contributor)
Summary: The Christian life is much more than a single decision to follow Jesus. It's a lifelong journey with Jesus. Jesus is with us on this journey. The journey is his classroom; it provides the context in which we learn to be like him.
In these verses we see that Jesus wants his commitment to us to be reciprocated. He told one person who wanted to follow him that he or she wouldn’t have a home to go to at the end of the day. He told another person that he or she needed to put commitment to God’s mission before family commitments. That was his situation and it was the situation for his 12 disciples.
He couldn’t take the road he was taking with people who were not fully committed. His terms were all or nothing. One commentator wrote, ‘partial commitment equals no commitment.’
But that was 2000 years ago. Does Jesus ask us for this level of commitment today? We can’t answer that question from today’s passage. But five chapters further on in Luke, Jesus declares, ‘Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.’ So, the answer is that Jesus asks for this level of commitment from all of his disciples. He asks that we be willing to lay our lives down for him just as he laid his life down for us.
This talk of laying our lives down may sound a bit dismal. But let’s go back to the verse we started on. Luke tells us, ‘When THE DAYS DREW NEAR FOR HIM TO BE TAKEN UP, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.’ Jerusalem wasn’t Jesus’ final destination. Jesus’ destiny was to be taken up to heaven to sit at the right hand of God.
In this passage we’ve seen Jesus setting off on a journey with his disciples. He has the great long-term goal in mind, to offer his life as a ransom in Jerusalem. But that’s not the full salvation story. There’s another part of the salvation story, that God wants to conform us to the image of Christ. And so, the journey to Jerusalem takes ten chapters in Luke’s gospel. Along the way, Jesus is with his disciples every step, guiding them, teaching them, protecting them. He will show them absolute commitment and he asks absolute commitment of them. There will be suffering on this journey and Jesus’ followers have to be prepared to suffer with him. But the journey is mostly an extraordinary adventure and at the end, we, like Jesus, will be received by God into heaven. This is what Jesus called his disciples to and what he calls us to. It’s a great journey. But, as we’ve seen today, Jesus demands complete commitment.
Talk given at Rosebery Park Baptist Church, Bournemouth, UK, 3rd January 2021
