Modern Day Disciples
Pastor Glenn Newton July 4, 2004
Text: Luke 14:25-33
LK 14:25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26 "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple. 27 And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
LK 14:28 "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? 29 For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, 30 saying, `This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’
LK 14:31 "Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.”
This morning we will begin our investigation of what it means to be a Modern Day Disciple. I can tell you that some of you will be offended by what you hear…. That’s OK, some of you need to be offended with the Truth, and heed what it says. If your comfortable in your walk with the Lord, God’s Word and His teaching has a way of offending you right out of that comfort level, if your satisfied that you have progressed enough in your Christian walk and you don’t plan on changing anything anymore, you definitely will be offended today.
Last week I asked you, Is there a difference between a Christian and a Disciple? As we go through the next couple of weeks talking and learning about what discipleship is, my hope is that there will be no doubt in your mind what the answer is…. You will know.
Anybody know what the main responsibility or the main job that Jesus left us to do is? The main job of the church, your main job as a Christian….. To make disciples. So we surely need to understand what a Disciple is, so we know what it is we are to be making, right? There is a difference between a believer and a disciple. There is no such thing as an instant disciple; like the word, it takes discipline.
A Russian comedian, Yakov Smirnoff talks about when he first moved to America, he was amazed at the variety of instant products he could buy in the store. There’s powdered milk: just add water and you have milk. There’s powdered orange juice: just add water and you have orange juice. Then he saw Baby Powder and thought, “What a great country! If you want a baby, just add water!” Some people think that’s how discipleship works. You take a believer, add a little baptism water, and “poof” you have a fully-devoted follower of Jesus–a real disciple. But it takes more than water to make a disciple. Disciples are made, not born.
In Luke 14, Jesus was getting closer and closer to the cross. People who wanted to see a miracle or get a free meal from Him were mobbing Him. The crowd is about to become much smaller because He started setting forth the cost of discipleship, and it’s not a popular message. It requires total commitment.
A hog and a hen sharing the same barnyard heard about a church’s program to feed the hungry. The hog and the hen discussed how they could help. The hen said, “I’ve got it! We’ll provide bacon and eggs for the church to feed the hungry.” The hog thought about the suggestion and said, “There’s only thing wrong with your bacon and eggs idea. For you, it only requires a contribution, but from me, it will mean total commitment!” That’s the cost of discipleship.
In our passage this morning we are going to notice what Jesus says about Discipleship, it may be offensive, but when Jesus says it, maybe we should listen. This morning I want to share with you 2 Marks of a disciple, these are basic and mandatory to being a disciple, these aren’t marks of the greatest disciples who we will never measure up too. But instead, if we will notice what Jesus says, without these marks, we are not His disciples, so those who have ears, let’s hear what the Word says.
LK 14:25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26 "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple.
1st – Love for God is over and above everyone and everything else.
People choose to follow Jesus on several different levels of intimacy. It’s like a set of concentric circles. On the outside you have the crowd. The mob following Jesus knew who He was, but they would soon be gone. Today, the people in Johnson County who express an interest in Jesus represent the crowd, but they seldom ever worship with other believers. You have friends and neighbors who would tell you that they are believers, but where are they today, they are not worshipping God, they are at home doing there own thing, getting ready for company, getting ready for the fireworks, right? These folks represent the crowd.
A deeper level of commitment is the congregation. These are people who attend church on a fairly regular basis. In other words, they “congregate” with other people to worship, but are not an active member of any local church. They call themselves church-shoppers, but they are more like church-hoppers. They are like a butterfly flitting from one church to another, never really committing themselves to serve Jesus.
A deeper level of commitment is the church. This circle represents those who have affiliated with a local church and have a deeper level of intimacy with Christ and His body.
But there is a level deeper than that which we could call the committed. These are the ones within the church who are real disciples–they are radical Christians–sold out to Jesus. Like in many organizations, in our church about 20% of the people do 80% of the work and give 80% of the financial support of the church. That’s the committed core.
Which circle represents where you are today? Where would you like to be? The job of a disciple is to become part of the core committed and then move out into the crowd to make more disciples.
Let’s look back at our passage, in verses 25 and 26 Jesus talks about Supreme Love of God.
The first image Jesus uses is a family. Are you surprised Jesus said that to be a disciple you must hate your family? I read about one pastor who entitled his message on this text, “How to hate your wife.” You may be asking yourself, “Doesn’t He talk elsewhere about loving everyone, including our enemies?” Sure, remember, Jesus often used figures of speech to give His words a greater impact. He used metaphors, similes, and parables. And here, He simply employed hyperbole. Hyperbole is an intentional exaggeration to emphasize a point. My wife uses hyperbole all the time when she says something like, “I’ve told you a million times to pick up your clothes.” I know it isn’t a million times (only half a million). So, don’t get upset because Jesus used hyperbole. Also, the Greek word in this verse means something totally different than our English word for “hate.” The word is sane, which means, “to prefer above.”
To be a disciple, you must love Jesus more than you love anyone else–even family members. Your love for Jesus should be so powerful that in comparison, it seems as if you hate everyone else. It is also true that sometimes your love for Jesus will alienate you from others, even your family.
I’ve read about a former Muslim who came to know Christ and was baptized in one of our Nazarene Churches on the district. It was a tough decision for him because he knew the moment he became a Christian, his family back in Iran would not just disown him, they would have a funeral for him and consider him to be dead. He had to make the hard choice, but he followed Jesus–even though His family opposed it. This is what it means to “Prefer above” anything, anyone else.
Being a Christ Follower means putting Him first in our lives. Parents, can I say something to you. If you want your children to be Christ Followers, Disciples of Christ, then you need to order your lives in ways that will reflect that belief. When you will allow the smallest distraction to keep you from coming to church, when the outside forces start taking you away from your Worship on Sunday mornings and our discipleship on Sunday nights, there’s a problem in the order of importance. When He’s First, He’s First. When He’s First, Your Commitment to Him and Your Commitment to His Body, the church is a top priority…… But Pastor, You don’t understand…. Yes I do understand, there are times when what we do and what we prefer is going to cause you problems with people outside the church…. That’s the way of the disciple… count the cost. Don’t dare apologize for putting Christ first in your life. Let people know why you will be different.
Friend, when God calls you, you have to make some difficult decisions, and sometimes your family and others will not jump up and down and rejoice over your choices. That’s the first mark of a true disciple. Next: 2nd Mark of a Disciple – The Cross
2. The Cross – Are You Dead To the World?
We need to live like a dead person. Did you hear what I said, I thought it was pretty good, We need to live like a dead person. Let me explain.
The image Jesus used is a cross. A real disciple is someone who carries his cross.
There is a hymn we used to sing when I was a child that said something about “the cross I bear.” I thought they were singing about a cross-eyed bear. This last Wed. night your teen in our Life Group learned about being Cross-eyed, meaning as true disciples we need to have the Cross in our vision at all times… Don’t ever forget what the Cross represents and means to you as a follower of Christ.
Many Christians are confused today about what it means to carry a cross. I’ve had someone say to me, “I have migraine headaches, but I guess it’s just the cross I must bear.” Or I had someone take off their shoe one time and show me their ugly big toe. They said, “I have an in-grown toenail, but I guess it’s just the cross I must bear.” I always wanted to say, “Why don’t you have that nasty thing worked on by a doctor?” The cross is NOT a headache or an ingrown toenail.
Today, the image of the cross has lost its horror. The true message of the cross is death. How many of you are either wearing a cross today, or have a cross on your Bible? How nice. But what if we began to sell little miniature models of an electric chair in our Christian bookstores, would you wear one? Or what if someone made a syringe of poison and started offering it as jewelry to wear? Can’t you hear someone walking up to you saying, “I love your electric chair, where did you get it?”
Today, the cross has become benign–a piece of harmless jewelry. In the Jesus’ time, it was a horrible, agonizing tortuous mode of execution. It was the noose, the electric chair,
The guillotine, the lethal injection of His day. In the time of Jesus when you saw someone carrying across it meant one and only one thing–they were as good as dead.
A few years ago, Sister Helen Prejean wrote a book, Dead Man Walking. When a death row prisoner is walking from his cell to the place to be executed, the other prisoners say, “Dead man walking.” He’s alive and walking–but he’s as good as dead. That’s a perfect description of what Jesus meant when He spoke of a disciple carrying his cross. We are dead people. We should just start acting like a dead person.
Paul understood what it meant to carry a cross. In Galatians there are three dynamite verses about what it means to carry your cross: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me...” (Galatians 2:20) “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.” (Galatians 5:24) “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” (Galatians 6:14)
That means there is nothing the world has to offer you that interests you–it’s as if the world is dead to you and you are dead to the world.
Years ago, the great Nazarene preacher Bud Robinson visited Manhattan. He saw all the buildings, the bright lights and the temptations of the city. Bud was a great preacher, but he had a noticeable lisp. At a church that night in New York City he prayed the following prayer: “Dear Lord, I thank Thee that I have seen all these wonderful things today. But I also thank Thee that I didn’t see a single thing I wanted!” For a disciple carrying a cross, the world can’t offer a thing we want.
In many ways, a dead man is set free. You won’t be truly liberated until you understand what it is to be crucified with Christ.
Will you be a Modern Day Disciple? These two first marks of discipleship, do you have them in your life?
1st – Love for God is over and above everyone and everything else.
2. The Cross – Are You Dead To the World?
Where are you in our concentric Circles? Have you made a choice to go beyond being a part of the congregation and joining the church? We need you to go farther in your commitment than that, will you move to the core of the committed?
Friends, being a Modern Day Disciple isn’t about being part of a cool club…. But instead, God is raising up a Army who is committed to Christ Supremely, who is willing to live a Cross eyed life. Is God number one in your life, on your list of priorities, if he’s not, your not His Disciple.
If you have not come to the place where you have died to yourself, where you have given up on saving yourself, then you are not ready for the Cross…. The cross is for dead people. If your not dead to yourself…. Don’t call yourself a disciple… Jesus says you cannot be His disciple until you die to yourself and pick your cross and follow Him in total submission.
This morning we are going to open our alters for prayer…. Are you wanting to move closer, then you can come and pray and offer yourself totally to Him, but remember it will cost you everything… He has got to be First. His disciples are never ashamed of Him, or praying to Him, so come, step out, when you die to yourself, you don’t care what other people think… come and pray this morning to be the disciple that God wants you to be, pray that God would help you understand what it means to pick up your cross and to follow Him….. He’s waiting…. He’s been waiting for His Church to get serious about discipleship, I can promise you that this church, your Pastor, your leaders are serious about raising up Modern Day Disciples, men and women, boys and girls who will Love God above everything else, and who will carry the cross…. And as we continue to learn about discipleship, we will learn that true disciples must make new disciples…. Will you join this cause… it’s why we are here….. As Nola plays, let’s come and pray together..
