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The Call of Discipleship
The Call of Discipleship Luke 9:18-27 Key Verse 9: 23,24 “Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.” Recently some psychologists were asked an intriguing question. “What would you say is the most important component in a human personality?”To this they answer that it’s a sense of identity. Psychologists believe that in almost every way our personality develops around the way we define our identity. And the more clearly defined and complete a person’s sense of identity, the more stable, strong and healthy the personality becomes. I decided I would deliver today’s message on one of the most important teachings and truths in Jesus’ ministry. I believe this teaching is the crux and the core of what it means to be a true disciple of Jesus. I remember long time ago I studied this passage in Chicago with Shepherdess Anna Yang. At that time, I had gotten back from deployment in Iraq and was on a two week vacation. Coming back from Iraq to America, I was directionless and a little depressed due to my situation and I didn’t really know what I would do when I would come back in the States. However, during my time of activation in the Marine Corps, I somehow had credit to purchase an airline ticket and so I decided to go to Chicago. I thought it would be fun to meet old childhood friends and have fun. But after having bible study I realized that it was the best event while in Chicago, even though I could see a lot of old childhood friends, that bible study stuck in my heart. Also Shepherdess Anna Yang mentioned to me about a possible marriage candidate whom I didn’t know at that time would Shepherdess Petra Han, the most beautiful woman in the world! Through this passage I could learn the simple truth of Jesus’ words “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”Let’s pray to learn Jesus’ teaching. Part 1. “Who do you say I am?” At this point in Jesus’ ministry, Jesus had already done great and amazing miracles such as healing the sick, those with leprosy as well as raising the dead. He also taught the crowds beginning with the Sermon on the Mount. Later, Jesus began to teach in parables and said “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” And his disciples were sent out in order to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. Maybe Jesus wanted them to experience what it is like to be a Shepherd, a Caretaker, and even a disciple maker. In any case, many great things were happening despite the opposition of the Pharisees’ and their criticism and rejection of Jesus as the Messiah. Yet, the disciples still had lots to learn. Although they could do such great, wonderful, and amazing things they were still young disciples who needed to know the truth of Jesus’ true plan and purpose in the world, as well as what Jesus’ true identity is. Let’s look at verse 18. “Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?” Jesus wanted to know what the crowds thought about Jesus. It was on Jesus’ mind because he knew many people followed him and listened to him speak, yet they had no clue who he was. In other words, they didn’t know Jesus’ true identity and what he came to this world to do. That is why, it is important to ask oneself who Jesus is, otherwise there is no point. It is important because when we know the true identity of Jesus and what it means to follow Jesus, we can have true life, joy and happiness in this world. Many times we say who we are, what ethnicity we come from, what profession we have, and what we do or have done in life. We identity ourselves with these things. We do many things and work hard at them to attain them. Although Jesus did so many wonderful things we see Jesus doesn’t base his identity only on his miracles alone or what he did during his ministry. We see that Jesus is a miracle worker who has all the power and authority. In short, Jesus is God. But Jesus’ ministry doesn’t stop there. Jesus now proceeds to the other half of this ministry which is discipleship. Whereas the disciples knew who Jesus was, the people in the crowds had no idea who Jesus really was. They merely thought he was one of the prophets or one of many succession of prophets. To say Jesus was merely a prophet or a teacher is like saying Michael Jordan was just a basketball player in the NBA or that Steve Job’s was just some person who owned shares of apple stock. It just doesn’t make complete sense. Yes, of course Michael Jordan was a basketball player in the NBA but… what else? He won 6 NBA championships, 6 NBA Finals MVP awards, 5 NBA MVP awards, 14 scoring titles and the list goes on. Michael Jordan isn’t just a basketball player he is the greatest player in basketball of all time or GOAT (GREATEST OF ALL TIME….) So it isn’t enough to just say Michael Jordan was just a basketball player, Michael Jordan was THE GREATEST BASKETBALL PLAYER EVER during his time. Likewise it isn’t enough for Jesus to just be a prophet like John the Baptist or Elijah. Jesus is the Messiah. Part 2: “But what about you? Who do you say I am?” Look at verse 20 “But what about you?” he asked “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “The Christ of God.” Luke’s Gospel Chapters 1-8 focused on “Who is Jesus?” Jesus performs many miracles and wonders. But from this point on, Jesus delves deeper on discipleship and turns his focus on what it means to be his disciple. This is the turning point in Luke’s gospel. From the time Jesus’ identity is revealed, Jesus begins to tell his disciples plainly about what it means to follow him. Jesus asks his disciples, “But what about you? Who do you say I am?” This prompts us to ask ourselves the same question. I think if Jesus asked me this question I would think of Isaiah 53 which describes the Messiah as a suffering servant. “Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53: 4-5) Peter’s answer to Jesus’ question was excellent. A ++. This was the right answer. Why? The disciples had seen the miracles and had done many great and wonderful things with Jesus. What more evidence did they need. The disciples knew who Jesus was despite they’re immaturity as disciples. In contrast the Pharisees and teachers of law could not accept Jesus as their Messiah. They were afraid of Jesus’ popularity and for fear of losing people to Jesus. They could not accept that a mere man could be God. Jesus knew what was happening and so in order to prevent a premature death when the time was not yet ready for Jesus to be crucified, Jesus warns his disciples not to tell anyone directly or explicitly about Jesus as the Messiah (Luke 9:21). If they did it would cause a riot and Jesus would be accused of blasphemy. Now that the disciples all acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ of God, what now? What does that mean? What happens next? The statement “The Christ of God” was now the beginning of their new journey of understanding Jesus. After having answered Jesus’ question correctly, Peter faced the question of what it meant for Jesus to be the Christ of God. It seems at this point Peter only knew who Jesus was at face value, he didn’t really know that being the Messiah meant suffering, rejection and death. To Peter the Messiah probably meant the one who would bring the ruling power of God back into the world to heal and repair all the brokenness – whether it’s spiritual, psychological, social, or physical. Spiritual in a sense that the dark times of those days would be eradicated, social in the sense that the nation Israel would no longer be oppressed by Roman rule and so on and so forth. But never suffering, rejection, persecution and death. This wasn’t part of Peter’s idea of who Jesus was. Peter didn’t sign up for this when he first followed Jesus. There was a new Dilemma. Even though Peter was right about Jesus being the Christ of God, but it was only head knowledge. He had probably known this through scripture or from those who read scripture and blurted out the answer “The Christ of GOD!” But he had no clue what that meant. After this response from Peter, Jesus tells them about the events that would later happen in his life. Look at verse 22, “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.” In Mark’s account, Jesus is said to have spoken plainly about these events as if it were nothing, no problem at all. It may have sounded as if Jesus didn’t have any hint of worry, anxiety or anger at what would happen to his life, he just spoke it as if it would be done, no problem, no questions asked. It would be done as Jesus said. But to this Peter becomes furious and rebukes Jesus for having said such a thing and says “Never Lord! This shall never happen to you!”. Peter loved Jesus dearly and didn’t want to see his Master and beloved teacher suffer at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law and to be killed. Peter couldn’t accept such a thing to happen to his Lord. But we see Peter’s rebuke was because of his wrong notion of Jesus. Peter is actually a lot like new and young disciples of Jesus of today. We all have some skewed wrong notion of who Jesus is in our lives because of our strong inclination towards our own selfish desires or for some sort of prosperity. Although Peter knew Jesus was the Messiah, the Christ of God from the head, he didn’t know what that actually meant from the heart. There is a saying that the longest distance known to man is from his head to his heart. It is so hard to connect the two. Although we may have a head knowledge of Jesus as the Messiah, we almost must know it from our hearts and what kind of suffering it involves. In the other synoptic gospels Jesus rebukes Peters attitude for rejecting Jesus’ suffering, rejection and death by saying, “Get behind me, Satan! You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” Jesus obviously loved Peter dearly and cared for Peter and his needs. But here Jesus calls Peter Satan because of the things he had in mind. Peter’s mind was still focused on the things of this world and he was still very much a part of the world. Part 3: “If anyone would come after me…” (Three critical points of being a true disciple of Jesus) After Peter identified Jesus as the Messiah, Jesus warns his disciples not to tell anyone about it. He also tells them of the events that would later happen to him prior to his crucifixion. Jesus now engages in his core teaching of discipleship. Jesus begins by saying, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.” I’m pretty sure most of us who have been Christians for awhile have heard this passage more than once. It really is Jesus’ direct instructions for those who want to follow him. If anyone would come after Jesus or follow him one must deny himself. What does it mean to deny oneself? Self-denial is the when one puts aside ones freedom and choices in order to obey Jesus. It is a complete dedication and willing obedience. In other words a disciple obeys Jesus’ commands and follows him. The second part of the verse “take up his cross daily and follow me” sounds like the “many” crosses we need to take up such as work, school, feeding sheep. This can be those things because we are humans and we need to work to support ourselves and our families and go to school in order to land a decent job. But Jesus is talking more than just the burden of taking up the cross of work or school. However I believe these crosses should not be neglected. In fact I would think Jesus would want us to continue to do what we do in the world to earn our daily bread. But as Jesus teaches true discipleship it becomes evident that he is literally talking about taking up the cross even if it means our very own death. In other words we must be willing to die in order to follow Jesus. Did you know that all twelve disciples of Jesus besides Judas Iscariot were martyrs for the gospel and for Jesus. This was all because of the disciples taking up their crosses. They must have put Jesus first in their lives and were willing to die for him. The Apostle Paul was put in prison and bound in chains because of Jesus. Even though Paul could have given up and have been sad and miserable in prison, Paul never gave up. Instead Paul rejoiced! Paul had a revelation from Jesus himself that could not be taken away. That is why Christ Jesus was the source and secret of Paul’s continual joy (even in prison), for Paul’s life found all its meaning in Christ. So he said in Philippians 1:20,21 “I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” Now this may sound too extreme, but Jesus’ teaching is extreme it is revolutionary. Jesus wants us to fully surrender absolutely to him even if it requires our life. That is why Jesus says in verses 24 and 25, “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?” This is already a very tough and somewhat extreme form of discipleship. There are many kinds of disciples in the world. There are many kinds of disciples in this world. Disciples of Buddha, Western Philosophy, Atheism, you name it. But the only disciples that believe that by losing their life, they save it, are Jesus’ disciples. There are three critical areas of our lives that are affected when we take the call of discipleship. First, our priorities are affected. Second, our Identities are affected and third, how we show mercy to others are affected. When we want to become a disciple of Jesus our priorities are changed from ourselves to Jesus first. You all know the acronym JOY. Jesus first, others second, yourself third. This helps us remind ourselves to put Jesus first if we want to really experience JOY in our lives. My mother’s name is JOY. When we want to become disciples of Jesus our identities become new, we become a new creation. We must learn to put our aside our self interests and allow Jesus to take top priority of our lives and form new identities in him. We also need to be merciful to others and show mercy as Jesus showed mercy to sinners. We shouldn’t be upset at those who don’t know Jesus or reject Jesus deliberately as the Samaritans did. Because of this James and John the sons of thunder wanted to call fire down from heaven upon them. But Jesus did not approve and rebuked them for having said such a thing. Jesus rebuked them because it wasn’t for them to call judgment upon those who were indignant. In fact the wrath of God, God’s judgment, God’s fire from heaven would be displayed and cast down upon Jesus himself while he was on the cross. All the punishment was upon Jesus who paid for our sins. As disciples of Jesus we must always remember God’s saving grace towards all sinners no matter how vile or wicked because of Jesus on the cross. According to Jesus we can just be a Christian and not be a disciple. When we claim ourselves to be Christians we must include the life of a disciples. There are not two kinds of Christians: regular Christians and people who are really disciples. The call to Discipleship is not an option. It is also a journey. Jesus in Luke 9: 51 sets out on a journey towards Jerusalem. From this point on Jesus is determined to complete his mission and begins his journey toward the cross and begins all his teachings about discipleship. To go on this discipleship journey requires us to leave our former live go on the journey means saying, “I give up my right to self-determination.” To go on the journey means saying, “I will obey you, Lord, and I’ll get rid of all the ifs. Not ‘obey you if,’ but obey. Period. After your decisive beginning the fact remains that it’s still a journey. It’s still a process that takes time and effort. It won’t be easy. But when we look to Jesus who said “I’m going to the cross for you, so follow me.” we can remember we saved not because we are disciples but because of the enormity of what Christ has done for us on the cross. Let’s pray to go on this journey of Discipleship with joy, prayer, a right attitude and a willingness to embrace suffering not run from it. |
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