Luke 9:23-26/57-62 A Call to Discipleship

2. Do You Picture: THE ORIGINAL 12? A MONK / A PREIST / A DISCIPLINED INDIVIDUAL / A MISSIONARY

3. What about YOURSELF ? Do you say THAT’S ME I AM A DISCIPLE OF JESUS?

4. To tell the truth : All disciples are believers / but not all believers are disciples - ( REPEAT)

5. But Anything short of being a disciple is settling for less than what God desires for your life.

1. Life of living in a wonderful, awesome relationship w/ the Living God

2. But it is also a life of Challenges / battles / and obstacles that need to be overcome & dealt w/ /

1. Thus the Life of a Disciple is really a great adventure! Never knowing what the Lord is going to do next.

3. Now Is that a good description of your life? or is your life rather boring - just merely existing from day to day .

1. Unfulfilled / unhappy / unchallenged.

4. If your answer to that last question is Yes / f you are bored, unfulfilled unhappy what you need is not a change of scenery / new Job/ new family /

1^st WHAT IS A DISCIPLE?

1. Word disciple means FOLLOWER - speaks of extreme DEVOTION -

2. It speaks of a person who follows after another w/ the intent of being like the one they are following after.

3. In school yards / in Middle schools & High schools & even colleges all over America you can find boys young men on B. ball court - tongue out

1. WHY? They want to be like Mike- Jordan

4. So a disciple is a follower who IS devoted to the person or thing He is following & who seeks to be like the one he is following

1. Spiritually speaking a disciple is one who soaks up the word of God / He is like a starving man who has found a meal.

2. He has an appetite for God’s word - puts himself in a place to receive it, to eat of it !

1. Loves to study the Word & to be in places where it is being taught

1. He is a learner - soak in the word -

2. Both descriptions indicate that he is a person who is teachable - he doesn’t make the mistake of thinking - he knows it all!!!!!

3. The closest contemporary word to "disciple" is probably apprentice

1)A disciple is more than a student who learns lessons by means of

lectures and books.

4. He is one who learns by living and working with his teacher in a daily "hands on" experience.

1. Too many Christians are content to be listeners who gain a lot of

1^st Requirement to Being a Disciple of Jesus is the Denial of Self.

1. But What does that mean ? / Deny is from a Greek word which means to completely disown, to utterly separate oneself from someone.

B)It is the word Jesus used to describe Peter’s denial of Him

3. Each time he was confronted about his relationship to Jesus, Peter more

vehemently denied knowing JESUS

1) He disowned his Master before the world.

That is exactly the kind of denial a believer is to make in regard to himself

1. Our whole focus is one of seeking to answer the question - How am I going to please ME!!!!! Take care of Me / Do what is best for Me !
2. But Jesus teaches something altogether different challenges us to make a shift in our thinking / adjustment in our mindset

1. Develop a new way of thinking that translates into a new way of living

C) Not How am I going to please myself - but How can I please Him.

4. This DENYING OF SELF - speaks of a mindset that we must adopt

where we decide that we are no longer living to please ourselves

1. But we are going to live our lives to please the LORD!!!!!

c) It is the RENOUNCING OF SELF & AND ANNOUNCING HIM

3. The only real obsession a disciple should have is for Jesus Christ. He must be the most important pursuit of our lives

1. More important than careers / hobbies / relationships & our own personal happiness

4. In fact we will never find personal happiness until we are fully committed to Him. / Happiness is the by product of knowing Him

1. Psalm 144:15 Declares HAPPY ARE THE PEOPLE WHO’S GOD IS THE LORD !!!!

1. Those who want to be disciples need to not just develop a mindset of self

denial We must be willing to pick up our cross daily & follow Jesus

2. The cross has lost most of its original meaning today / It has been shrouded in religiosity .

1. Crosses on churches / Bibles / Necklaces - Beautiful crosses w/ diamonds & pearls -

3. But the people of Jesus day - had a much different view of a cross - the cross was an instrument of death.

1. Reserved for the cruelest of Criminals/ It was the Most brutal form of capital punishment -

4. Today Jesus would have said - Whoever desires to …..me let him deny … & pick up your electric chair & follow me.

1. Don’t see people diamond studded necklace of Electric Chair

5. Sale in the book store - Electric chair - pin today

1. Songs At the electric chair where I first saw the light.

6. Flyer would read - Life begins at the electric Chair - Sounds silly / strange because we associate that w/ death -

1) That is how it would have sounded to these people in Jesus day

1. *It was a symbol of the torture and death that awaited those who dared raise a hand against ROME

2. Not many years before Jesus and the disciples came to Caesarea Philippi, 100 men had been crucified in the area.
3. A century earlier, Alexander Janneus had crucified 800 Jewish rebels at Jerusalem, after a revolt that followed the death of Herod the Great,

4. And Only a few years before Jesus spoke those words, a zealot named Judas had gathered together a band of rebels to fight the Roman forces.

E) The insurrection was easily stopped & in order to teach the Jews a lesson, the Roman general Varus ordered the crucifixion of over 2,000 Jews.

1. Others consider the cross as being some challenge they have to live w/ a bad job/ lousy marriage / a pushy mother in law.

2. But none of those things speak of what Jesus meant when He declared you need to daily pick up your cross & follow me

3. No picking up ones cross means that Daily I am going to die to myself in order to allow Christ to live His life through me.

4. DENIAL OF SELF IS MAKING HIM MY PASSION / DYING TO SELF MEANS I WILL DAILY SUBMIT TO HIS WILL IN MY LIFE.

5. That submitting to His Will in my life might mean the death of a

relationship that He says I should no longer be in.

1. It will mean the death of certain sinful habits that I cling to

6. It might mean death to a way of thinking - An attitude of bitterness / Pride / self sufficiency

*Now what Jesus is teaching here is the very thing that He modeled in His own life -His passion was the father He lived to please the Father .

1. And the focus of His life was a cross !

1. These 3 were His inner circle - scriptures record 3 occasions where Jesus takes these 3 aside from the others

3. 1^st was in Luke 8 w/ Jarius daughter - was dead - He went into the room where she was permitting only - Peter James & John / parents in

1. The 2^nd was on the Mt. Of transfiguration - Seen glowing w/ Moses & Elijah. 3^rd / In the garden praying - night of His arrest.

2. 2^nd on the Mt. Of Transfiguration What were they discussing ? v.31 They spoke of His death .

1. There Jesus is seen glorified in Death - Fulfilling the Fathers Plan

3. 3^rd In the garden - He is praying about His death - Father if there is …..

1. THERE WE SEE JESUS WAS SUBMITTED TO DEATH

4. Perhaps Jesus was seeking to illustrate to these guy what He had taught them many times - that the key to living is in dying .

1. Tobacco industry spends 3.3 million a yr. In advertising = $100.00 a second - for what ? Help people die.
2. Beer commercials on the T.V - millions upon millions spent - for what ?

1. Help people destroy their lives -

3. The world is dying to live - Jesus comes on the scene & says I am living to die

4. Key in marriage / Friendships / key in ministry / DIE - In that the Father is glorified & you will be blessed both here & in eternity

2. Advocates of self esteem have been remarkably successful in convincing people that self esteem is the solution to every problem.

1. One survey revealed that a majority of people view self esteem as the single most important motivator for hard work & success.

3. Ranking above - a sense of responsibility & a fear of the future .

1. Schuller says that the will to self love is the deepest of all human desires

far from being a sin peoples lust for self love should be fueled / fostered /fed

2. He suggest that people should not fear pride & that Jesus was on an ego trip / actually - cross sanctifies the ego trip

1. Because Jesus said that If I be lifted up I will draw all men to myself -

3. Schuler has also said that sin is psychological self abuse / sin is any act

or thought that robs myself or another person of his/ her self esteem.

1. And Hell is simply the loss of pride that follows such an act .

D) Schuler says Pride is OK - Interesting theology in light of the fact that the Bible declares that God resist the proud - but gives grace to the Humble

Jesus said: DENY SELF- Daily die to self & in v. 24

A) There are so many people trying to find themselves/ great pursuit self

Jesus said: IF you want to find yourself... LOSE yourself

2. The REAL secret to life is lose your life for Jesus

3. Listen Christianity is not about me trying to live like Jesus but it is about me getting out of the way & allowing Jesus to be Himself in my life.

1. See I can not be like Him/ but He is committed to working in my life to make me more like Him.

4. But in order to do that I must decrease that He might in increase.

A) To lose yourself in Christ is where you find life

B) The world says Get all you can - But Jesus says v. 25 "For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?

D) LOSE HIS SOUL !!!!!!!!!!

2. When J.D. Rockefeller died a reporter asked the Estate manager - How much did Mr. Rockefeller leave behind - answer - EVERYTHING

3. You can’t take it w/ you - NO U-HAULS IN HEAVEN.

3^rd - Requirement for being a disciple is A DISCPLE CONFESSES HIS LORD.

5. 26 "For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father's, and of the holy angels.

1. There are some Christians who try to be " Secret Agent" Christians. They believe in Jesus but they don’t want anyone to know it !

2. They don’t want to be vocal about their faith - they don’t want to bring up the Bible because might offend someone .

1) But Jesus says you can’t be my disciple & be ashamed of me!

Reminded me of a radical story - From among the finest athletes in the Roman Empire, Nero selected a group called The Emperor’s Wrestlers. Their motto was: "We, the wrestlers, wrestling for thee, O Emperor, to win for thee the victory and from thee, the victor’s crown."

The wrestlers were also soldiers and were often sent out on special military campaigns. On a certain mission in Gaul (modern France), many of the wrestlers were converted to Christ. Upon hearing the news, Nero ordered the commander, Vespasian, to execute any wrestler who refused to renounce Christ and swear religious as well as military allegiance to the emperor.

The emperor’s orders were received in the dead of winter, as the men were encamped on the shore of a frozen lake. When Vespasian assembled the soldiers and asked how many were Christians, forty men stepped forward. Hoping not to lose any of these fine men, many of whom were his friends, he gave them until sundown the next day to reconsider.

But at the given hour, all of them still refused to renounce Christ. In order that they not die at the hands of their comrades, the commander ordered the forty men to disrobe and walk naked out onto the ice.

Throughout the night the soldiers on shore could hear the forty sentenced men singing triumphantly, "Forty wrestlers, wrestling for Thee, O Christ, to win for Thee the victory, and from Thee, the victor’s crown."

The singing grew fainter as morning neared, and at dawn a lone figure walked back and approached the fire. He confessed that his faith was not strong enough to face death.

2. Even though - he was impulsive - his motives were right - and his approach was right . LORD PROBLEM ? Didn’t count the Cost.

1. Jesus was saying that following me means that you are going to being living a life - denial - some of the basic comforts of life.

2. If you really are going to follow me there are things that you might end up living w/ out -

1. and before - you make this big boast consider the COST

4. Many people today - express a desire to live radically for Jesus - but never get that far because of an unwillingness to let go of things that only prevent them from making that next step.

1. Most of the people in the multitudes who flocked to Jesus were just curious of Him - came to see Him perform a miracle . or feed 5,000

2. They were not there more for their hungry stomachs / than for their hungry hearts .

3. Unfortunately there are many people today who attend church for the same reason. - They are curious about Jesus.

1. Check out this Jesus thing. - Curious what goes on here.

4. But - there has to come a time when they move from being - curious to convinced or they will not continue on.

1. After a hard teaching that Jesus gave the bible records that most of the crowd - left & ceased to follow Him.

5. When what He was saying ceased to appeal to them - they quit following Him/ Many people do the same today.

6. Jesus turned to His disciples & asked are you going to leave me also - Peter spoke answering for the whole group. Lord where…go ….. life.

7. They had moved from the place of simply being - curious to convinced

1. Question have you ? But there is a next step if you are truly going to be a disciple - You need to be committed - = Count Cost

2^nd Hindrance- Wrong time - not Convenient time to get serious about following Jesus - illustrated in v.59

2. The man’s asking for permission to bury [his] father, did not mean that his father was already dead.

1. The phrase was a common figure of speech in the middle E. that referred to a son’s responsibility to help his father in the family business until the father died and the inheritance was distributed.

3. Now such a commitment could involve a long period of time, thirty or

forty years or more if the father was relatively young.

1. The expression is still used in parts of the Middle East today. Read a story about a missionary asked a rich young Turkish man to go with him on a trip to Europe,

4. The missionary hoped to disciple the man. When the young man replied that he must bury his father, the missionary offered his sympathy & expressed surprise that the gather had died.

E) The man explained, that his father was alive & healthy and that the expression "bury my father" simply meant staying at home & fulfilling his family responsibilities until his father died & he received his share of the inheritance.

Since a man’s inheritance was lost or reduced if he did not fulfill his expected responsibilities to the family, the phrase "I must bury my father" was frequently equivalent to "I want to wait until I receive my inheritance."

1. Many people do the same today - I will get serious about the Lord after I go to college / when married / kids / too much fun now.

2. Athens - We will hear you again Paul - Never did.

1. Agrippa - Paul you almost persuade me to become a Christian- never did

It really means: "One of these days I would be interested in that......But not now" Problem is most never do -

1. What if you had to answer for your life today?

B) READY? Disciple ? What would you have to show!!

3^rd hindrance is like the second Other Priorities

1. Lord I would like to follow you but I have some things I need to attend to first!
2. Problem w/ both of these last two men is revealed in their - response to Jesus - see if you catch it .

2^nd guy - "Lord, I will follow You, but let me first

4. Let me first - but- let me first - 2 things you don’t say to the Lord

1. If Abe had looked back - He might have returned - He didn’t look back He looked forward

2. Goal -

3. Who is Asking - Key