Choose the Life 1/4/2009

The Mission of Grace Community Church is:

Calling individuals to Christian discipleship

Growing Obediently in community

Impacting the world through service

For the past several months we have been focusing on what it means for us to be disciples of Jesus Christ. We looked at several commitments that Christian disciples make – like, committing to prayer, committing to regularly reading the Bible, and committing to community with other believers. We have also been looking at several attitudes that disciples of Jesus Christ reveal – like, submission, humility, and wonder.

Throughout the gospel accounts, Jesus challenges the 12 disciples, and us today, to choose the life of being his followers. To choose the life of discipleship. Jesus is looking for and calling for men and women to be transformed by faith in Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit into disciples that will live boldly for God in this world.

There’s a popular notion that when someone becomes a Christian then, after a while, maybe, quite possibly, if they want to get serious about their Christianity, they will kinda sorta, maybe with the proper motivation, just might almost consider becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ. The truth is, the Bible knows nothing of this concept of Christianity and discipleship.

The clear biblical teaching is this: To be a believer in Christ, to be a Christian is to be a disciple. Faith in Christ, trusting in Jesus for salvation, finds its practical and tangible outworking only through following Jesus Christ as one of his disciples. Non-discipleship Christianity simply does not exist as a biblical concept. There is no Christianity without being a disciple, and there is no Christian discipleship without following Jesus.

If being a Christian is synonymous with being a disciple of Jesus Christ what does this fundamentally look like? This morning, as we come to the beginning of another new year, I want to challenge all of us, and I include myself in this, to choose the life of discipleship, to choose the life of following Jesus Christ.

If you are not already there, please open your bible and turn with me to Luke 9:23-26.

This morning we are going to look at Jesus’ definition of following him as his disciple as it is found in Luke 9. But before we dive in I think a little background to set the context will be helpful.

The passage we will look at this morning in is paralleled in both Matthew 16 and Mark 8. In all three of these passages the circumstances for Jesus’ teaching on what it means to be his disciple follows Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Christ.

In Luke 9:18, we read, “Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, ‘Who do the crowds say I am?’ the disciples replied, ‘Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life.’ ‘But what about you’? Jesus asked. ‘ Who do you say I am?’ Peter answered, ‘The Christ of God.’”

Following Peter’s confession, we find Jesus’ first mention of his impending death at the hands of the religious rulers. This is again consistent with each of the three gospel accounts where this scene is found.

Look at verse 21, “Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone. And he said, ‘The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”

I suspect this was less than encouraging news to Jesus’ disciples; certainly it was confusing to their concept of what the Christ of God, as Peter had called Jesus, was to be.

Having told his disciples what they could expect to see in the near future for Jesus, Jesus also wants to be totally clear on what it meant to be committed to him as one of his disciples. And this is where we will focus our attention this morning.

Jesus defines for his disciples what it means to Choose the Life, and in Luke 9:23-26, he points to three crucial choices that the disciple of Jesus Christ must make. Let’s take a look at these together.

Verse 23 begins, “Then he (Jesus) said to them all: ‘If anyone would come after me” The essence of all discipleship, the decision to choose the life begins with the basic response to come after Jesus. Coming after Jesus means that all those who have heard the gospel, and have responded in faith to its truth, have accepted Jesus Christ as their savior and made him the Lord, the ruler of their life. But what does this specifically look like? What does choosing the life of discipleship look like?

Jesus’ first answer is that a disciple is not centered on self. Again, in verse 23 Jesus says, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself”.

When a disciple denies himself this does not mean that a disciple denies himself a Big Mac for lunch. Nor does it mean that a disciple denies herself a new dress when she needs one.

Although denying yourself things is always a good habit to have, this is not what Jesus is talking about when he speaks of his disciples denying themselves. The denying of self that Jesus is speaking about is a denial of personal control over your life.

Verse 24 describes this well, Jesus says, “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it”. That is whoever wants to exercise personal control over their life and act as though they are god will ultimately lose what they have worked so hard to control.

Jesus continues, “But, whoever loses his life for me”, that is whoever will give up personal control over their life, Jesus says, this person will save it.

EX. ------ people asking for help, help is given, and then not wanting to do it – RA, student comes not passing classes, we talk through habits, rejects every suggestion because it in someway impinges on his fun. Can’t see that his fun is leading to his failure. Same with kids, same in life.

For the person who chooses the life and becomes a Christian, becomes a disciple of Jesus Christ, there is a fundamental recognition of allegiance to him that says, “God needs to direct me. I will not and cannot direct myself.” This is the essence of what salvation through faith in Jesus Christ means.

Salvation does not come on your terms or my terms, nor is it given based on your merits or my merits. This is what verse 25 means when Jesus says, “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?” God is not impressed with our stuff, he’s God he can make what ever he wants – your wealth or lack thereof is not impressive to him. Nor is God wowed by what you can do. And praise God this is so.

Salvation, as the scripture teaches over and over, is a free gift from God. And as a free gift it is bestowed upon those who know the need for it, it is freely given to anyone who acknowledges that they cannot provide salvation for themselves. This kind of acknowledgement requires us to see beyond ourselves, to deny ourselves, to surrender our personal control over our lives, and ask God to provide his control.

The first choice in choosing the life is to deny personal control over our own lives.

The second choice that Jesus wants his followers to make is to submit themselves to the authority of another.

Jesus continues in verse 23 to define what choosing the life of discipleship means by saying, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily”.

The temptation whenever we hear Jesus speak of the cross is to immediately assume that he is talking about his own death. But this is not always so. In the first century world of the New Testament the image of taking up a cross would have clearly communicated to the 12 disciples with Jesus what the depth of commitment was that they were being asked to make.

In the first century world a prisoner condemned to execution by crucifixion would be forced to carry the upper beam of the cross they were to be executed on as an example to others of their complete submission to the power of the Roman state.

In our day, think of a prisoner in an orange jump suit and shackled by their hands and ankles. In the jump suit you are a marked man; everyone knows you are a prisoner. Shackled you are unable to move without guidance and help from another. The prisoner is subject to the will and authority of the guard and state whom they are literally owned by.

Jesus wants his disciples to realize that in choosing the life, they are to take up their cross, that is take up submission to the authority and will of another – to realize that their will is now subject fully to God’s will, that the are stripped of authority over their own lives and submissive to God’s authority in their life. Just as Jesus was. Jesus says of himself in John 6:38, “For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.”

When you and I choose the life, we do not choose it once and move on. Choosing the life is a continuous action, a daily decision.

We choose the life by denying ourselves – by giving up personal control over our lives and recognizing our need for the gift of salvation. Secondly, we choose the life by taking up our cross daily – by submitting our will to God’s will.

Finally, we choose the life as we follow Jesus. Again, look at verse 23, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me”.

Choosing the life, following Jesus as one of his disciples’ means that we will willingly obey. What does it mean to be a willingly obedient disciple of Jesus? It means that we will follow Jesus’ example and follow Jesus’ commands whatever the circumstance we find ourselves in.

If you didn’t know this I’ll give this to you today for free – being a follower of Jesus, being his disciple is hard. Why? Because as we grow more into being Jesus’ disciple, we will naturally take on his way of life and his character. Therefore, as we imitate Jesus and live our lives in line with his teaching and commands, we can be sure that we will also come under the same fate that he did – and that being rejection, suffering, and perhaps death.

And Jesus wants his disciples to realize the seriousness of the commitment he is calling them to. In verse 26 he warns, “If anyone is ashamed of me”, that is ashamed of his example of life, “and my words” Jesus’ teaching and commands, Jesus says, “the Son of Man will be ashamed of him”. Jesus is not mixing words here. He is saying that being his follower requires commitment, requires total allegiance. And to reject him at any part is to feign commitment, and disavow allegiance to him.

You know, I think this is why Jesus has given his followers the church. It is hard to keep coming when you are being beat down. It’s hard to keep trying when you are defeated and ridiculed. It’s hard to keep focused when you are inundated with lies and other distractions all around you. But when I know I am not alone. When I know that I am not the only one who is trying to live faithfully, that I am not the only one who is trying to work out what it means to be a disciple, when I have others who have walked longer and further than I have that can encourage me to keep up the fight, when I am able to be used by God to support others as they continue to follow Jesus themselves – I not only can, but I want to keep coming after Jesus and being his disciple.

I am so very grateful that Jesus has given us the church, that he has given us each other to be able to lean upon and be encouraged by and mature together. Life is not meant to be lived out alone. Discipleship is not meant to be done alone. The community of believers is the standard. Jesus’ own model was to gather others around him, 12 men, and to pour himself into them. And we need to be willing to have others pour their lives into us, and us pour our lives into others.

When Jesus calls us to choose the life he readily recognizes that this is a high calling. My beloved church family, I challenge you to choose the life. It’s a new year and resolutions are being made a plenty. May I be so bold: resolve right now to make corporate worship, what we are doing right now, a weekly commitment. Resolve to be involved in a growth group here at Grace and be feed and encouraged to live boldly as a disciple in your world. Resolve to regularly read the Bible – if you want or need a schedule for reading through the Bible let me know, there is a reading plan in the Growth Groups Gazette that I will be more than happy to put into your hands. Resolve this year to regularly pray. And most importantly I challenge you to resolve to choose the life in 2009 – to abandon a notion that there is a kind of Christianity that does not involve discipleship. The bible knows nothing of these and we should not either.

Jesus says, “If anyone would come after me; he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me”.

As disciples of Jesus Christ we deny ourselves by giving up personal control over our lives and receiving the freely offered gift of salvation. We take up our cross daily by submitting ourselves to God’s will in our lives over our own. And we follow Jesus as his disciples by willingly obeying him by following his example and teaching.

Come with me and let’s choose the life of being a disciple of Jesus Christ together.