Saturday, October 22, 2011

Congratulations!

Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

"Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, `This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.' Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace.

"In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:25-33).

This morning, I would like to congratulate you. You are doing something very difficult—you are following Christ. Peter calls us a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God (1 Peter 2:9). We are not like other people; in Psalm 4 David says, the LORD has set apart the godly for Himself. Followers of the true God have always been in the minority. At the time of the Great Flood, only 8 people in the entire world listened to God. At the time of Elijah, God said that in all of Israel only 7,000 people were true to Him. When Jesus hung on the cross, only a handful of people had the loyalty to stand at His feet as He died. In the years since His resurrection, the Holy Spirit has led billions of people to the Savior’s wounded side, yet even today only a third of the world claims to be Christian, and many of them barely understand what being a Christian is all about. Those who follow Christ are a select group, always in the minority.

Why is this? We know that Jesus loves us. We know that He forgives us every time we fall at His feet begging for mercy. We know that He will raise us from the dead and give us eternal life in paradise. So why don’t more people respond to His call, give Him their souls, and follow Him through life?

Jesus said, wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it (Matthew 7:13-14). There is only one gate that permits entry into heaven; that small gate is the Son of God. Jesus said, I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved (John 10:9). There is only one road that leads to everlasting life; that narrow path has been mapped out by the Savior. Jesus also said, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6).

Our Master is the only way to approach God in safety. We are sinners, but God is holy; His purity is so intense that we cannot bear to look at Him any more than we can safely stare into the sun. We are corrupt, but God is pure; if we dared approach Him too closely, we would be consumed like a moth that gets too close to a flame. The evil within each of us makes it impossible to have anything to do with God.

But Jesus solved this problem on the cross. He took full responsibility for our sins and paid the ultimate penalty for them. When Jesus died, our death sentence was commuted. Then Jesus rose from the dead, proving that God’s perfect love is far more powerful than all the evil in the world. Jesus is living proof that the mistakes of the past can be forgiven, that today can be a fresh start, that tomorrow we can be closer to God and eternal happiness than we’ve ever been before.

Jesus doesn’t expect us to pay Him back for what He’s done. Love doesn’t work that way. And it’s not as if we could repay Him anyway; there is no way we can take back every harsh word we’ve spoken, fix everything we’ve broken, or do enough to wipe away all memory of the hurts we have caused. Christ’s forgiveness, offered freely, is a gift no one can put a price tag on.

But our Lord does demand one thing from us—He demands our complete loyalty. Jesus said, If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple…any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple (Luke 14:26).

Do these words sound harsh? Perhaps, but they are consistent with everything God has said to His people from the beginning. Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden because they listened to Satan instead of God. God promised to make Abraham a father of many nations, on the condition that he place his trust in God alone. At Mount Sinai, God promised to be with the Israelites so long as they honored Him, but He assured disaster if they started worshipping other gods.

The First Commandment demands complete loyalty to God. Jesus upholds this commandment by saying that nothing in our lives can be more important than our relationship with Him. And this is one reason why so many reject Christianity. They don’t want to give Jesus first place in their lives. They value other things—their families, their jobs, their popularity, their wealth, their independence, their bad habits, their recreational activities. From their perspective, Christianity is just too demanding. They don’t want to force their kids to go to church. They don’t want to have to consider whether the terms of a business deal are morally right or wrong. They don’t like to admit mistakes, and fear that apologizing makes them look weak. They see no reason to donate money to a charity unless they can get a tax advantage for doing so. They resent anyone trying to tell them what to do and what not to do. They are comfortable with their bad habits and addictions. They believe that religious people don’t know how to have a good time.

Many people are so attached to their current lifestyle that making any significant change is too unpleasant to consider. So they seek other options; they look for a religion or philosophy of life that doesn’t demand a radical change of priorities. They would rather listen to a comforting pack of lies than the uncomfortable and challenging truth. This is one reason why I commend you; you have done what many won’t do. When Christ spoke, you did not close your ears and walk away—you listened and you let the truth rearrange what’s important to you, even when those changes have been uncomfortable or worrisome.

Jesus demands first place in our hearts, a place so far above everything else that even love of parents and children is moved down to an entirely different level. And this is no mere rhetoric on Jesus’ part—many believers have to choose between Christ and their loved ones. There are places in this world where people are rejected by their families for becoming Christian; some converts even risk death at the hands of religious extremists. It is no wonder that Jesus tells us to weigh the costs carefully before setting off to follow Him.

When we follow Jesus, there is a cost that cannot be avoided. Jesus warns that we must be willing to take up our crosses when following Him. On Good Friday, Jesus carried a cross to the place of His execution. That cross was the painful burden of God’s anger at our sins. Yet Jesus carried that burden willingly, because His suffering would achieve a wonderful result—forgiveness for your sins and mine, forgiveness that makes us eligible for entry into heaven. That was a gift Jesus desperately wanted to give us, even though it cost Him more than we can imagine.

The cross that we bear when following Jesus is similar in some ways, different in others. It is the same in that it involves suffering while we walk towards our deaths. But our suffering cannot begin to compare to what Christ went through for us. In 2nd Corinthians, Paul describes our suffering as light and only lasting for a short time. Nor do we suffer for the same reasons as Jesus. Our suffering does not pay off any debt of sin; when He died at Calvary, Jesus paid the full price to free us from hell’s fiery grip.

The cross we carry is the burden of obedience. It is hard to give up favorite pleasures that God forbids. It is hard to make time in our busy lives to reach out and show care for others. It is hard to share the things we have with strangers and those who are in need.

It is also hard to face the pressure to conform. We feel uncomfortable telling our friends no when they want us to join them in sinful behavior. We want to be part of the group; we don’t being an outsider. And we certainly don’t enjoy being made fun of for trying to do the right thing.

And following Jesus feels restrictive. What’s the point of growing up, we think, if we can’t start doing whatever we want? We prize our freedom; it’s hard to submit to Christ’s authority.

Jesus says that anyone who does not carry his cross and follow Him cannot be his disciple. This sure sounds tough. But I congratulate you for struggling to do the right thing, for carrying the burden of being a Christian. Frankly, it is not as heavy a burden as Satan would like you to believe it is. You know that; you take comfort from Jesus’ words in Matthew chapter 11: Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Christ wants us to follow Him, so He shares our burdens with us. He wants us to receive the blessings of discipleship—having our guilt removed and experiencing peace of mind, confidence that we have value because God loves us and that our lives have purpose when we serve Him, and assurance that death is not permanent and that we will be reunited with all our loved ones who died in the faith. These are the benefits that come from taking up our crosses and following Jesus.

I commend you for doing what most of the world is unwilling to do—hold Christ high in your life and regard everything else as of lower importance. But before you get a swelled head, I should remind you that the only reason you follow Christ is because the Spirit of God is helping you along the way. He gave you the faith to believe; He points you in the right direction; He supports you when you get tired and lifts you up when you have no strength left. You can only follow Jesus because God helps you to.

And let’s be honest, you don’t always make Jesus number one in your life. You make many decisions without first praying for guidance. You might go for hours, even days, without thinking about Jesus or offering Him a word of thanks. You have friends and relatives who need to hear the message of salvation, but religion is the one subject you never talk about.

Thankfully, Jesus forgives you and me for our half-hearted devotion. He forgives us for whining about how hard it is to follow Him. He forgives us for making moral compromises. He forgives us for acting as if God is not aware of what we’re doing. He forgives us because He is patient, loving and generous. He picks us up and dusts us off so that we can continue following Him along the narrow road to paradise.

Jesus tells us to consider carefully the cost of following Him. You have calculated the cost and you have seen the truth—that the benefits of being a Christian far outweigh the drawbacks. Praise God that He has given you the wisdom to see this truth, because it is a truth that most are unwilling to face.

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