THE HIGH COST OF DISCIPLESHIP LUKE 9:51-10:24. Damon Life Group

THE HIGH COST OF DISCIPLESHIP LUKE 9:51-10:24 Damon Life Group 10.07.12

Review: Outline of Luke Luke s Prologue (1:1-4) The Infancy Narrative (1:5-2:52) Preparation for the Ministry of Jesus (3:1-4:15) The Ministry of Jesus in Galilee (4:16-9:50) Last week: A Portrait of a Disciple of Christ The Journey to Jerusalem (9:51-19:27) The Ministry of Jesus in Jerusalem (19:28-21:38) The Suffering and Death of Jesus (22:1-23:56) The Resurrection of Jesus (24:1-12)

Last Week A Portrait of a Disciple of Christ Disciples of Christ believe what Jesus says about Jesus Luke 9:18-20; Mt 16:13-20 Disciples of Christ are Christ-Centered, not selfcentered Luke 9:21-27; Mk 8:31-38 Disciples of Christ persevere through disappointment and discouragement to see the glory of God Luke 9:28-32; Mt 17:1-13 Disciples keep their eyes on God s greatness not on their weakness Luke 9:37-45; Mt 17:14-23 Disciples of Christ remain humble Luke 9:46-50; Mt 18:1-5; Mk 9:33-40; Luke 22:22-30

Today: The High Cost of Discipleship What does following Jesus really look like? What have we been taught in our culture, in our churches, in our Sunday School lessons, in GA s and RA s, in all religious programs? Today, I want you to put all that you think you know about what it means to follow Christ in one of two categories What does God s Word say about following Christ? What does everything else say about following Christ?

Today s Text: Luke 9:51-10:24 Samaritan Village Rejects Jesus Luke 9:51-56 The Cost of Following Jesus Luke 9:57-62 Jesus Sends out the Seventy-Two Luke 10:1-12 Woe to Unrepentant Cities Luke 10:13-16 Return of the Seventy-Two Luke 10:17-20 Jesus Rejoices in the Father s Will Luke 10:21-24

Today: Luke 9:51-10:24 Samaritan Village Rejects Jesus Luke 9:51-56 The Cost of Following Jesus Luke 9:57-62 Jesus Sends out the Seventy-Two Luke 10:1-12 Woe to Unrepentant Cities Luke 10:13-16 Return of the Seventy-Two Luke 10:17-20 Jesus Rejoices in the Father s Will Luke 10:21-24

Jesus Turns His Face Towards Jerusalem Let s read Luke 9:51-56 V. 51 is a transition point in Luke s Gospel Jesus idea of Jerusalem (doesn t arrive until ch 19) was radically different than the disciple s idea Up to this point, He s been working in the region of Galilee (small towns and villages) Jerusalem was a big city (over 100K) on a hill (10 layers of civilization) In the day of Abraham it would have been a small, simple area but the act of faith that established him as the Father of our Faith, sets this land aside as a place that God would provide The wood Isaac would carry, the ram in the thicket, the salvation by faith all of this would be a foreshadow of the work of Christ This city is significant (mentioned about 800 times in the Bible) and is today the religious center of the world

Jerusalem: Now & To Come How was Jesus view of Jerusalem radically different from that of the disciples? That s how we can understand James and John s comment in v. 54 Jesus knew his Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem would be interpreted one way, but mean something completely different Interestingly, the palm branches we know of mentioned at His Triumphal Entry are mentioned only by John in John 12:13 as Jesus rides in on a donkey We hear no other mention of palm branches again until Revelation in the fulfillment of the kingdom's inauguration as the King of King enters to take his rightful place on the throne and bring peace to all nations I looked and behold, a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the Lamb clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb! (Revelation 7:9-10) Yes, Jesus had set His eyes towards death, but in so doing, He had set His eyes on victory! The question on the table today is are you willing to follow Jesus to the cross not because of the victory of this world, but the victory in the next?

Sending out the 72 The key verse here is 10:2 The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Don t know their names sent out 2 by 2 At first blush you say, sign me up, I love to pick fruits or vegetables! The problem is Jesus paints a different picture First, he says you are sent out as lambs among the wolves and then says (in case that is not scary enough), you can t take anything with you, you have not place to stay and no money either Bottom Line: Find ALL your sufficiency in Me

We too are sent out What do you see as the application to our lives today? Certainly, there are several take-aways Ministry in teams is effective We need more workers Missions is often done in silence, but done with great focus Your role may be to prepare the ground for someone else Jesus does not call the equipped, He equips the called

Woe To Unrepentance Here, Jesus is functioning like an OT prophet who would call people to repentance and who would also call down God s judgment He is calling these towns and cities to repent while they can and He is calling you and me to do the same thing today If they/we reject the message, then we reject the invitation of salvation and the opportunity to repent of our sins When we do this, we invite judgment that will be strict and harsh Why? Because He IS God. He IS King. He IS Lord. He IS Judge. He offered, you rejected. There are only two categories of people here those who accept Him and those who reject Him For you and me we can read, have TVs and radios, have internet material, church s to equip you NO EXCUSE how significant will our judgment be?

Return of the 72 So, they go out on their first commissioned field trip and what happened? They were ecstatic! Why? They were amazed by the fact that demons were subject to His name Jesus let them know Yes, Satan is real I saw Satan fall like lightening from heaven. He s not only real, he is out to destroy you, your family, your job, your witness, your testimony However, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall hurt you. He tells them all this to make one central point yes, its pretty neat you can cast our demons in my name, but don t get excited about that

Are You Rejoicing? How many, if you were honest this morning, are just bummed out? What is it that has you down? Is it possible that you are down because you have placed your trust in and that is not working out like you think it should? Jesus has a word for you as long as you put your hope in anything other than Him YOU WILL WALK AWAY DISAPOINTED AND on the other hand, if you are on cloud 9 today because your favorite team won, you got that job, your investment portfolio is looking right, or even that people are responding to your ministry guess what? DO NOT REJOICE in those things (they will ultimately disappoint) But rejoice that your names are written in heaven. Bummed? Perhaps your eyes are on the wrong prize put them on Jesus and the eternal life He brings and you WILL NOT be disappointed as He is the fulfillment of all things Let s look at Jesus modeling this very thing in the next passage

Jesus Rejoices in the Father s Will Now, we started this study with v. 51 Jesus has His eyes squarely set on the cross I don t know about you, but I can t really think of a worse situation How many of you today who are really bummed out have a worse scenario than you are headed on a several month journey with a group of guys who don t get it, with mobs of people following you, with no predictable place to sleep or eat, so that at the end of this journey you could take on the sins of the world and be slaughtered? Is anyone s scenario like that? How Jesus responds to His scenario? He rejoices in the Father s will Listen to 10: 21-24

Back to the High Cost of Discipleship For the balance of our time, let s return to Luke 9: 57-62 This text has been a game changer for me over the past year and is certainly some of the more difficult passages in all of scripture At the very heart of these words of Jesus, however, is what is expected if we are going to follow Him, and, by extension, what is NOT expected if we are to follow Him To present this passage, I want to draw from what I heard from David Platt that day to help us think through the high cost of discipleship

A Crisis of Belief Honestly, this passage will create a bit of a crisis for you in your belief Do you really believe what this book (the Bible) says? Because if this book is true, the ramifications are imaginable 6.8 B people in the world, of which 1/3 claim to be Christians (liberal estimate) This still leaves over 4.5 B people who are without Christ destined for Hell In addition to this spiritual need, add the physical need today, 26,000 children will die of a preventable disease The crisis begins when we consider that Scripture makes clear that one way God measures the integrity of our faith by our response to those in need So, if this book is true, we don t have time to play games with our lives or the church If this book is true, we have a Master that demands radical sacrifice and a mission that that is urgent This text calls us to radical abandonment to all we hold dear in order to grasp that which is most precious in all of life

Are You Sure? Let s read Luke 9:57-62 Isn t this a weird text? When you look at all that churches do to try to get people to follow Jesus, you get a different picture here of Jesus approach Here, it seems as if Jesus is trying to talk them out of following Him When He would get large crowds around Him He would say things like he did in John 6:51, I am the living bread that comes down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. Or in Luke 14:25-27 when another great crowd has surrounded Him and his opening line is, If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. A few chapters later (18:18-30) the guy everyone wants to see signup to follow Christ tell Jesus he wants follow Jesus tells him to sell everything This is radically different than Admit, Believe, Confess, and pray the prayer to have Jesus come into your heart What if Jesus had said these things to you? Here s the problem He has

Who is this Man who is God? It is critical that we take a close look at Scripture to see who Jesus is and what He expects from His followers and put aside what our culture and even well intended teachers have twisted Him to be Let s take each encounter separately and see how each of these encounters represents our own struggles to make Jesus first in different areas of our life It leaves us with three questions (ala Platt) Let s take each in turn

#1 Are we choosing comfort or the cross? Luke 9:57-58 They are walking along this road (that leads to the cross) and the man says, I will follow you wherever you go We learn from Matt 8:18ff that this man was likely a religious teacher Jesus warns us about guys like this in Mark 12 that they might attach themselves to another teacher to advance their own status (Jesus as a means to an end) Jesus is pulling this guy to the side and saying are you sure that you want to follow me on the road I am traveling? Because when you look past the crowds, when you look past the cheers and the palm branches, there is a cross waiting Jesus is saying if you follow me, I m all you ve got Jesus is not the means to an end, Jesus is the end Jesus is saying when you come to me, even the basic need of shelter is not the priority because you have everything you need in me

Means or End? This is an important word for you and me today We seem to have a cultural perspective that Jesus is a means to an end Come to Jesus and get forgiveness Come to Jesus and get healing Come to Jesus and get your best life now That is not what the Scripture is saying He is saying if you come to me the reward you get is me Is Christ enough for you? Or, like me do you seem to be stuck in the hamster wheel of a Christ + the things of the world life We pile stuff on top of stuff to the point where we begin to loose sight of Christ The central question for us today is Christ sufficient, is Christ enough? Can you imagine a Madison, MS where Christ was enough? Story of believers in Asia Christ is enough Are we choosing comfort or the cross?

#2 Are we settling for maintenance or sacrificing for mission? Read Luke 9:59-60 So, here s the 2 nd guy who approaches Jesus Most scholars do not believe his father had died So, what is Jesus saying? There is an obligation and urgency to give your life to something greater There is no room for settling for maintenance of the things in our life, rather a call to make sacrifice for the eternal mission of proclaiming the name of Christ to the end of the earth But John, I m not called to foreign missions NO! Global missions is the purpose you have breath at this very moment! This is the very purpose for which you have been created (not a program in the church)

Mission Mindset Back to feeling bummed out or trying to figure out what God has called you to do, want to know what your purpose is? God has made this abundantly clear The reason he has given you your gifts, your resources, your abilities, your neighborhood, your job, your family, your community is not to enjoy them we have been given these things to proclaim the name of Christ to the ends of the earth Can you imagine what would happen if in Madison, MS the mission of God was not just for pastors and missionaries? Are we settling for maintenance or sacrificing for mission?

#3 Are our lives going to be marked by indecisive minds or undivided hearts? See Luke 9:61-62 This question is central In this case, a man wants to follow Jesus but the man wants to go back and tell his family good bye and Jesus says no WHY? Bottom line: our love and affection for Christ must supersede anything in this world He demands our undivided affections, our undivided hearts because someone plowing can not plow a straight line while also looking back This is at the heart of the Gospel see Matt 13:44, The kingdom of God is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. He is willing to sell everything because he knows he is not risking anything because he is gaining everything Is Christ is worth loosing everything for? At one level this may seem like sacrifice, at another, it s just the most wise investment you can ever make

There is Another Way Christ s Christ really is supreme His mission really is the purpose of our lives We really can let go of the pursuits, pleasures, and things of this world This world has nothing for us when Christ is everything to us It is not a risky gamble, it is infinitely wise with eternal dividends and it is what you and I have been created with purpose to do Will we have indecisive minds or undivided hearts?