Discipleship: The Price and The Profit
Questions Jesus Asked • Sermon • Submitted
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· 86 viewsEvery cost of following Jesus is infinitely worth it.
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Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
Discipleship: The Price and The Profit
Intro
Image: Loading our yard dumpster (6.2 tons) (Mar/Apr 2019)
Need: Is it worth it? It’s hard!
Subject: Discipleship - Culmination of the Series
Main Idea: Every cost of following Jesus is infinitely worth it.
PRAY
Read (The Question)
If anyone would come after me...
If anyone would come after me...
a call to follow
“would” verb of choice
resolve to/choose to
we respond, or not
compare the cost with the value
Discipleship is costly (v 24b)
The cost of discipleship (v 24b)
Deny yourself
denial in itself is empty apart from relationship with Jesus
IMG: spiritual schizophrenia (flesh v spirit nature)
What self to deny?
Not self-abuse or looking for suffering
What is self-denial then?
Putting His Kingdom & Cause first
Do you ask what Jesus wants in this or that (or yourself?)
Take up your cross
Pillar NTC Take Up Cross quote
(not your own)
whole life belongs to Jesus
more than roommates/ingrown nails
IMG: "Paul” - Fleeing Iran/Murder of pastor/Sister’s Friends Missing
Follow me
keep following (present imperative)
AYBD Quote - obeying it exactly
whole life belongs to Jesus
- not I but Christ in me
(not your own)
Should have visible effect on priorities
Question: Do you look at least a little different from those around you who aren’t following Jesus?
Discipleship Is Worth It (v 25-28)
To try to save your life/soul (psychē) is to lose it (v 25)
IMG: sand through your fingers
the more you cling, the faster it’s lost
back to schizophrenia (which soul/life will you save?)
IMG: sand through your fingers (beach?)
What is real life anyways? (give an answer IMG: the matrix)
What profit is there? world vs life (v 26) [some changes/see manuscript]
CS Lewis, Weight of Glory quote
In the balances > pleasures of the world vs soul/life
Joys/Sorrows of this world pale in comparison to the next
This life is unsatisfying, but living for eternity is
This world is coming to an end. To trade life for it is nonsense!
v 26b nothing can be traded for a soul
Future return of Jesus (v 27-28) [some changes/see manuscript]
Herman Ridderbos (Dutch theologian) quote
(transfig, death/resurrection, ascension, pentacost, establishing Kingdom/spread of gospel, return of Jesus)
(final consummation), but where are we currently?
IMG: water slide (we’re part way down)
Final return & repayment (judgement)
For believers, after suffering comes Glory!
IMG: Waiting for a UPS package - Nothing else seems to matter
Did you commit yourself to Jesus, or to serving yourself?
IMG: Keller, ‘ought to’ recorder judgement
Application/What Now?
What area(s) of life have you not submitted to Jesus’ authority?
Pray to repent and give them to Him
If you aren’t able to, take that to Him instead and ask for help
Commit to whole-life discipleship
Thanksgiving - Thank for the Glory that awaits us who follow Him
Conclusion
Manuscript:
Discipleship: The Price and the Profit
Alyssa and I bought our first home back in August of 2018. When we originally looked at the house, we noticed there were several things that would need to be fixed or dealt with when we moved in. Some things were minor, like light fixtures that didn’t work, but others seemed like a bigger job. For example, in the back yard there was a shed that had fallen in such disrepair that it was a safety hazard. Other than looking like it could fall over at any point, there was a bunch of junk in and around it. Everything from fencing materials, to truck tires, to a broken glass door, and a rusty basketball hoop.
So when spring 2019 rolled around, we rented a roll-away dumpster from the city and I began to clear out the junk. I was really excited for the clean back yard, and so the amount of work it would take seemed worth it to me. At least, it did in the beginning. After moving roughly a ton (literally 2,000 lbs) of the junk out of the yard, it barely looked like I had even scratched the surface, and I started to feel like I might regret taking on this task. I started wondering, “Is this really worth it? Probably the kids wouldn’t actually impale themselves on anything. We could just tell them to stay away from the trash heap, right?” Thankfully, I realized the wisdom in just continuing with the next wheelbarrow-full, and mercifully, around 12,420 lbs later (6.21 metric tons), I had filled the 30 cubic yard dumpster, and the yard was unrecognizable from before I had started. But all along the way, I had to really test that question of if it was really worth it.
If you’ve never taken on your own ill-advised ‘haul-away’ project, good for you. But I’m willing to bet that God has put each of us in circumstances that have pushed us to the breaking point, where we don’t know how we’ll be able to go on. With finals looming, maybe you’re there right now. Regardless, in those moments, you might find yourself wondering if it’s all worth it. If so, you’re in good company, as many psalms show candid calls of frustration and desperation from believers in hard times. We all need reminders to help us answer the question, “Is it really worth it? Is it worth the suffering to follow Jesus? Can I keep going on?”
In light of this, the subject that we’ll be looking at this morning is discipleship. It seemed a fitting subject to me, as we finish out our series on the Questions of Jesus. So many of Jesus’ questions are aimed at deepening our discipleship relationship to Him, so the question we’ll look at in a minute can function as a sort of culmination of the questions we’ve been looking at. So, is discipleship to Jesus worth the hardship? Every one of us knows what our answer should be. Our lives, however, often reveal a more uncertain answer from our hearts, so let’s examine the question by looking at . Before reading though, let’s pray.
PRAY
READ
Right off the bat, Jesus gives an invitation to discipleship by saying “If anyone would come after me.” The Greek word translated here as “would” is a verb of choice. It implies making a resolution or choice to do something. Jesus had just predicted His death for the first time, and He follows it immediately with another invitation to discipleship. I can only imagine the swirling thoughts going through the disciples’ minds at that moment. The Messiah that they expected to come restore Israel just predicted His death and is now inviting them to follow Him! I can imagine them weighing the pros and cons in their mind. What is this going to cost me? What is this going to profit me? Am I willing to bet my life on this? Before they could even try to articulate those questions, though, Jesus continues by first addressing the cost of following Him, and then giving three reasons why to choose to follow Him, which brings me to my first point. Discipleship to Jesus is costly.
Jesus does not in any way shy away from the cost of following Him. Rather, He states it in an even stronger way than His disciples realized at the time. He says in verse 24, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Three statements in rapid succession that raised the bar of what is expected of anyone wishing to be a follower of Jesus. Let’s walk through each one briefly.
First, they must deny themselves. Self-denial is not something that western culture does very well at all. I might even be willing to go so far as to say that our culture is perhaps one of the worst when it comes to self-denial. With everything at our fingertips, we usually expect to have what we want immediately. A slow internet connection leads to wrath and rampant smashing of the refresh button. But beyond not being good at self-denial, its also common to misunderstand what self-denial actually is. Self-denial is not some version of self-abuse, penitence, or looking to make everything hard on yourself. There are plenty of world religions and philosophies that employ those types of things, but those are all empty. As a matter of fact, all self-denial is empty apart from a relationship with Jesus. This is because self-denial is the denying of yourself for the sake of another. The truest self-denial, then, is to deny your own desires for the sake of the desires of the Perfect One, Jesus. To put His Kingdom and His causes first in your life. To make His preference your preference. A quick check to see how we are doing in this area is to ask, “Am I doing this because it honors Jesus, or because it honors myself?” |pause|
The disciple of Jesus is not only to deny themselves, though. They must also take up their cross. This is a phrase that we use a lot within Christian culture, and it’s easy to misapply it by making it seem to be not a big deal. Someone cuts in front of you at the checkout line and you think to yourself, “Take up your cross, Marc (or whatever your name is).” Jesus meant significantly more than this when He called His disciples to take up their cross. Perhaps the way I’ve heard it put best was by Leon Morris in the Pillar New Testament Commentary where he writes:
“Jesus brings out the truth that he is looking for the utmost in self-denial by saying that the disciple must take up his cross. We minimize the force of this with sayings like ‘We all have our cross to bear.’ Jesus was not talking about minor discomforts. Those who heard him utter these words knew what taking up a cross meant; they knew that it was the prelude to that person’s crucifixion. Jesus was speaking about a death to a whole way of life; he was talking about the utmost in self-sacrifice, a very death to selfishness and all forms of self-seeking. We should not miss the force of his cross: there is a cross for every servant of God.” (Leon Morris, Pillar NTC)
Keep in mind, Jesus had just predicted His death, and one of the ways he explained following Him involved a cross. I don’t know about you, but I’ve had a really safe childhood (and life, really), for which I am deeply thankful. But one of the drawbacks to that is that I have become desensitized to the state of the world outside my bubble. The reality of potential death for Jesus can seem foreign. Thankfully, God is faithful to burst those bubbles – repeatedly if necessary.
I remember one of the most effective times God did this. I had met a student several years back, who for the sake of his privacy and safety, I’ll call him Saman (Farsi name meaning calm/solace). I met up with Saman for ice cream and asked him to share his testimony, which I’ll paraphrase to you now. He was born and raised in Iran. He shared that most everyone he knew disliked the Islamic religion that the government pushed on them, and either turned to atheism or Christianity. His family turned to Christ after seeing a televangelist program on TV. This put them at real risk, as Christians are imprisoned and killed in Iran, because Christianity is seen as a threat. Saman recounted that there was a regionally well-known Christian pastor in his area, and that the government came to the pastor’s house, drug him and his two sons out onto the lawn, and stabbed the pastor to death (in front of his sons). They then ordered the sons to leave the country within 24 hours or suffer the same punishment. The sons escaped, as did Saman and his family, but Saman’s sister had friends that were arrested before they were able to get out. At the time he was sharing this with me, they still weren’t sure what happened to his sister’s friends. After his escape, Saman came to work for the very same televangelist TV program that saved his own soul. For Saman, the meaning of ‘take up your cross’ felt more the way Jesus intended it, and with the help of the Holy Spirit, it can mean the same to us as well. It does not guarantee that we must die for Jesus, but it does mean that we must be willing to completely die to self and be willing, if necessary, to share in the sufferings of Christ.
Lastly, beyond denying ourselves and taking up our cross, we must also ‘follow Him.’ Here, the word for follow is an active imperative. Imperative meaning a command, and active meaning the verb tense indicates that we are to “keep on following Him,” or “continually follow Him.” Following Jesus, if we are going to be a disciple means way more than coming to church on Sundays or being active in our Connect group. It implies that moment by moment, our every action will be characterized by a following of Jesus. We must continually deny ourselves for His sake, take up our crosses along with Jesus, and keep on following Him in all things.
So, the cost of following Jesus is very high. It means that our whole life belongs to Jesus, with no exceptions. puts it this way when Paul writes: “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So, glorify God in your body.” If we choose to follow Jesus, then we no longer own our lives. The infinitely precious price of the blood of Christ has purchased us for Himself, and we are totally His. This means that we give God total authority over ever aspect of our lives. Not my will, but yours, Father. This should have a visible effect on our priorities. Visible meaning that others can see an effect from the outside. Unbelievers should notice there is something different about you. Following Jesus forever changes your priorities in how you handle your relationships, your jobs, your finances, your identity, your reputation, your talents, your time, and the list goes on. No area of life goes untouched when you are a disciple of Jesus. A good question for introspection is: “Do I look at least a little different from those around me who do not follow Jesus?” |Pause| Discipleship to Jesus is costly.
But Jesus continues on to giving reasons why this costly discipleship is worth pursuing. He gives us the reminders that I mentioned we need back at the beginning, which brings me to my second point. Discipleship to Jesus is infinitely worth it. Every cost He just laid out is more than worth it, so let’s follow along with His reasoning.
In verse 25, Jesus says, “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Notice again, the same word for “would” is used here. Whoever “resolves” or “chooses” to try to save his life will lose it. For me, this invokes the image of going to the beach and grasping a handful of sand. The more you try to grasp it, the more you just push the sand out between your fingers. The same is true of life. The more you try to cling to your life, the more you will find yourself losing it, according to Jesus. This statement that Jesus makes also seems to allude to the question of what is life anyways? Furthermore, the Greek word for life here is psyche, which is a word used for both soul and life depending on the context. As we’ll see here in a minute, you could read this verse as, “whoever would save his life will lose his soul, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save his soul.” Either way, it’s as though Jesus is saying that we actually have 2 types of lives overlaid on one another – one of a physical nature, and one of a spiritual nature. Our flesh nature preferring the current physical life, and our spirit nature (received from Jesus at salvation) longing for the spiritual life found in Him. puts it this way: “For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.”
It’s just like the movie The Matrix, if you’ve seen it. Neo lives his life as any ordinary person would, until one day he is visited by Morpheus who offers to show him truth with the red pill/blue pill offer. Choosing to see, Neo is reborn into a new reality, realizing that the life he once lived was a fake system outside of reality. He gave up life as he knew it in order to experience what real life was. The same happens for us when we choose to follow Jesus. At some point someone (or the Bible), gave us the choice to know Jesus or not (red pill/blue pill). If we chose the ‘red pill’ and accepted Jesus’ invitation (what we call salvation), we woke up to the reality of a life more real than the one we had previously been living. To go back to the question, “what is real life anyways?”, real life, then, is the spiritual life that we received by faith in Jesus to become more preoccupied with life in God’s Kingdom than life on this present Earth. If we cling to life on this current world more than to life in the Kingdom of God, then like sand through our fingers, our true life will be lost. Jesus reminds us that costly discipleship is worth it because the alternative is to lose your life entirely.
Jesus then continues with the capstone question of this passage. As a matter of fact, He actually busts out a double rhetorical question for added emphasis. Verse 26 reads, “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?” Like we just saw, there is a choice between lives. Life in the flesh, or life in the Spirit. Here Jesus puts them next to each other in direct comparison. It’s like he puts them in the balances and calls us to compare them. On one side is the life of flesh, and on the other is life in the Spirit. Perhaps the best way I’ve heard this explained is in CS Lewis’ book, The Weight of Glory. He writes:
“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
When we honestly consider the value of this life on earth, and the spiritual life in Christ that begins now and continues on for all eternity, in infinite joy, it is absolutely ludicrous that we would choose to sell our eternal life for the sake of the present life we live now. Yet that is exactly what we are tempted to do every day – every moment even. Just like the child in the slums, playing in the mud, we choose to play in the mud of living for self, all while passing up the beach vacation of living for Christ forever.
I’ve been hinting at it already, but within these questions, Jesus is reminding us that the cost of discipleship is worth every drop of suffering because this world is coming to an end soon. To trade eternal joy for temporary comfort is a fool’s choice. Even if we could trade it for the entire world, as Jesus points out, what would be the profit to us? It is unfathomable to imagine owning the entire world. Can you imagine it? Owning every single part of the world? Every iPhone is yours, every computer is yours, all food belongs to you, every car is yours, every currency is yours. You own every city, state, province, country continent, and even every person belongs to you. If you trade your spiritual, eternal life for all of it now, you will come to the end of your life and lose it ALL. You will regret it with all your soul, and you’ll be willing to trade ANYTHING to get your life back, but what could you possibly trade for your life? That’s what Jesus asks. Your soul is worth far more than the sum total of all created things, whether tangible or intangible. Costly discipleship to Jesus is worth it because the value of your eternal soul is a better deal than any joys this world could offer. I’ll add, that even during this temporary life, living the self-denying life of discipleship is far more satisfying than living for self or temporary gain. I have never given anything up for Christ and regretted it. EVER. And neither will you.
Finally, Jesus points us to one more reminder as to why the life of discipleship is worth it. He concludes in verses 27-28, “For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” He reminds us that the cost of discipleship is worth it because He is returning soon. He reminds us of His imminent return, and when He comes, He will come bringing angels with Him, and He will come in GLORY! He encourages us to hang in there, because He’s coming soon, and when He comes, He will repay each person according to what He has done – whether they have lived for themselves, or for Jesus. The cost of discipleship is indeed very high, but it’s worth it to go on a little longer, because when He comes, He will reward those of us who have remained on the path of discipleship with the glory of His presence for all eternity. It’s also worth it, because of we don’t continue on in discipleship, he will still return, only at that point we will forfeit our soul as He repays us for what we have done.
To highlight His point, Jesus emphasizes that some of His disciples standing there would not die before they began to witness the beginning fulfilment of this promise. It’s a process that began, perhaps, with Peter, James, and John witnessing the transfiguration of Jesus (a foretaste of His coming glory) only 6 days later. And then continued when Jesus was crucified, and the temple curtain was torn – further establishing His Kingdom on earth. And then the resurrection and ascension to His throne where he reigns now. And the sending of His Holy Spirit to empower His people. And now, where we currently find ourselves, in the continuing authoritative spread of the Gospel across the entire globe – all of this leading to the consummation of the total establishment of the Kingdom of the Son of Man on earth! It is worth it to hang in there on the path of discipleship because we are already significantly far down that path.
It’s like one of my favorite parts of going to the movie theaters. And rather than explaining it, I’m going to try to demonstrate it first, and then talk about it. You ready? (Play THX Audio). Oh man! I love that resolution! When God planned creation and salvation, it’s like He hit play on the greatest, cosmic play button for the THX audio intro, and all of history has been pressing closer and closer towards that beautiful and exhilarating resolution when everything falls into it’s proper place! We are lucky to not be so far from that day as many who have lived before us. In the same way that the THX sound begs us to “wait for it… waaaait for it…!”, so too does Jesus encourage us to wait for Him. Discipleship to Jesus is infinitely worth it because the alternative is death, the value of the life He offers is infinitely valuable, and because He is coming soon.
So I haven’t mentioned the main point, but it’s quite obvious at this point. Every cost of following Jesus is infinitely worth it. There is no price that He could possibly ask us to pay that isn’t totally worth it. That we wouldn’t gladly pay once we see what He has in store for us who follow Him. So, are you a disciple of Jesus Christ? Are you committed to serving Him, or are you still living a life committed to serving yourself? This is the question Jesus is asking us this morning through this passage.
So, what do we do now? We’re about to transition back into worship (Kim, Jenni & the worship team can come up now), and it is an ideal time to simply respond to Jesus’ question. I’ll encourage these things:
First, ask yourself what area(s) of life have you not yet submitted to Jesus’ authority? Once you’ve identified these areas (and they’re usually pretty easy to figure out), pray and repent for withholding them from Jesus. He is faithful and just to forgive us in Christ. As an additional note, this can sometimes be very difficult to do, because we cling to them so tightly. If this is your case, then admit that difficulty to Him. Tell Him that you are struggling with not wanting to give them over to Him, even though you know you should. He is gentle and kind, and longs to work through the Spirit to help you give them up. We will also have ministry teams in the back corner to pray with you. Finally, recommit yourself to a life of complete discipleship. Jesus began with an invitation to new or deeper discipleship, so respond by accepting the call.
We’re coming up on Thanksgiving, so even as you go out from here this week, let one of the things you thank God for be the glory that awaits all of us who follow Him. Let’s pray, and then worship together this King who would offer us so much!
PRAY