The Point Of No Return

Good morning. I pray that this Sunday morning finds you in good health and looking forward to this morning’s message. Let’s open with a word of prayer.

I have a title on my bookshelf that is going to be pulled and read this year. The Cost of Discipleship, written in 1937 by Lutheran pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, focuses on the Sermon on the Mount and what it means to follow Jesus.

Bonhoeffer was a Nazi-dissident who opposed Adolph Hitler’s regime and publicly condemned his euthanasia program and his genocidal persecution of the Jews because they contradicted the teachings of the Bible. Arrested after being associated with a plot to assassinate Hitler, he was quickly tried, sentenced to death and hung. Bonhoeffer had reached the “point of no return” because of what he believed.

A few weeks ago, I came across a video of Billy Crystal sharing his thoughts and memories of Muhammad Ali at his funeral in 2016. As he reminisced, I couldn’t help but think about the man who, in the prime of his life, willingly gave up his heavyweight boxing title because he refused to fight in Vietnam on religious grounds.

Ali was not willing to compromise his beliefs to serve in what he called “an unjust war.” Just like Bonhoeffer, Ali had reached the “point of no return” because of what he believed,

Perhaps some of you have heard about or read Richard Wurmbrand’s testimony in Tortured for Christ. During his 14 years in Communist prisons, the Romanian Evangelical Lutheran priest spent months of solitary confinement and years of periodic physical torture, constant suffering from hunger and cold and mental cruelty. His crime: his fervent belief in the saving power of Jesus and his public witness concerning his faith. Just like Bonhoeffer and Ali, Wurmbrand had reached the “point of no return” because of what he believed.

I’ve used the phrase the “point of no return” three times so far. What does it means?

In aviation “the point of no return” is“the point in the flight of an aircraft beyond which the remaining fuel will be insufficient for a return to the starting point with the result being the craft must proceed.” Once the point of no return is reached, there will not be enough fuel for the plane to turn around and return home.

Ladies and gentlemen, turning back is no longer possible. Your destination is now ahead of you. You have left behind “where you used to be.”

Now here is a point I don’t want you to miss: every Christian will reach the “point of no return” at some point in his or her life.

Sadly, for some, the “point of no return” will be their unwillingness to stand for the gospel against the ungodly views and values of society.

For disciples, their “point of no return” will be their willingness to stand firmly and without compromise on the gospel against all the ungodly views and values of society.

In both cases, when that point is reached, the person has made the decision that he or she is unwilling to return to the life he or she used to live.

You see, the price tag for taking an uncompromising biblical stand will be costly and many today are not willing to pay the price. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Muhammad Ali and Richard Wurmbrand – each understood the necessity of taking an uncompromising religious stand for what they believed, all the while, knowing full well the terrible cost that would be sure to follow.

It was a lesson that Jesus had taught nearly 2000 years ago and we see this in Luke 14, verses 25 through 27.

(25) And there went great multitudes with Him: and He turned, and said unto them,

(26) If any man come to Me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

(27) And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.

Folks, true discipleship will cost you. I am going to say that again. True disciple will cost you. And that is what Jesus is trying to get over to us in these verses.

It’s interesting to me how many Christians will read these verses and say they mean we have to hate our family and friends if we are going to be Jesus’ disciples. If this is true, then the verses also say we will have to hate ourselves if we are to be Jesus’ disciples.

Thankfully, this is not at all what these verses are saying. Far from it. Jesus is simply saying to us what He also had to do Himself, and that was to prioritize the needs of the kingdom over his personal needs.