FOLLOWING JESUS – Part 2 of 2

Jesus said, “If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.”  (Luke 9: 23)

The first two words of Luke 9:23 immediately stand out: “if anyone.” The word if leaves room for doubt. You certainly can choose someone or something else to follow. But that’s your decision, the promise of finding yourself with meaning and purpose doesn’t apply. If also indicates that every convert or new disciple must make the choice to follow Jesus. While we make that decision at the point of repentance and salvation, we also make it at crucial times in our lives and make it every day. That’s why Jesus used the word daily in verse 23.

Choosing the life that Jesus offers also involves choosing a way of life – a life of self-denial and submission... We don’t just amble our way into discipleship. We make a conscious decision to live by faith. We agree to join others who are committed to following Jesus rather than trying to lead Jesus. We fundamentally give up the right to run our own life. In other words, you can follow your heart, your dreams, your gifts, your personality profile, and seek the right fit. But all that is inferior to following Jesus. 

-- Bill Hull in “The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Making Followers of Christ” 

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FOLLOWING JESUS – Part 1 of 2

How do we know God lives and works in us? I think the answer comes from Jesus’ basic call to discipleship in Luke 9:23-25: “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. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world and yet lose or forfeit his very self?”

Beyond calling us to follow, Jesus also described the nature of the commitment that we need to follow Him. My whole life is the answer to Jesus' call to follow Him. He calls and I answer, not just in words, but in the action of following. George MacDonald noted, “Instead of asking yourself whether you believe or not, ask yourself whether you have this day done one thing because He said, ‘Do it,’ or once abstained because He said, ‘Do not do it.’ It is simply absurd to say you believe, or even want to believe in Him, if you do not do anything He tells you.”

When I answered Jesus's call with my whole life, I make myself His disciple at once. Deitrich Bonhoeffer said, “Only those who are obedient believe and only those who believe are obedient. Faith is only real in obedience.” 

-- Bill Hull in “The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Making Followers of Christ” 

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DISCIPLESHIP… COMPASSIONATE CARING

"As God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience."  (Colossians 3:12 NIV)

South African pastor Trevor Hudson identifies compassionate caring as the distinguishing mark of faithful discipleship: “Compassionate caring creatively balances the inward-outward dynamic so characteristic of Jesus’ life, saves us from falling prey to the latest fad in the spiritual supermarket, and catapults our lives into a deeper engagement with the brokenness of our world.” 

In a world saturated with spiritual trends and political slogans, Trevor Hudson’s words cut through the noise with clarity: true discipleship is marked not by novelty, but by compassion. Jesus didn’t chase popularity or perform for applause. He moved toward the broken, the weary, the overlooked -- with a heart full of mercy and a life poured out in love.

Compassionate caring is not sentimentalism. It’s a radical posture of the heart that refuses to separate spiritual formation from social engagement. It’s the kind of love that listens deeply, acts boldly, and suffers willingly. It’s the inward transformation that spills outward into a world aching for grace.

When we embrace this rhythm -- being formed by Christ and sent in His name -- we resist the temptation to treat faith as a consumer product or a political tool. Instead, we become conduits of healing, agents of hope, and reflections of the One who came not to be served, but to serve. 

-- SOUND BITES Ministry™, compiled from a variety of sources

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DISCIPLESHIP… EXPRESSING THE LOVE OF CHRIST

Looking at His disciples, Jesus said, “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”  (Luke 6:32–36 NIV)

The stretch of Christian discipleship is to love those for whom it is not automatic, easy, common, or accepted. To love those who do not think like us or live like us, and to express respect, compassion, and mercy to those we do not know and who may never be able to repay us -- this is the love Christ pulls out of us. Jesus stepped across oppressive social boundaries, intermingled with those who suffered crippling infirmities and social stigma, and offered hope to those at their point of gravest despair. He loved the least lovable and the most vulnerable, and He offered the same unmerited grace to the greatest sinner as to the finest saint. The down-and-out see in Christ as much love for them as the up-and-coming. And Christ invites His disciples to follow Him into this kind of love. 

-- Robert Schnase in “Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations”

#6238

DISCIPLESHIP… COUNTING THE COST

“A large crowd was following Jesus. He turned around and said to them, ‘If you want to be My disciple, you must, by comparison, hate everyone else -- your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters -- yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be My disciple. And if you do not carry your own cross and follow Me, you cannot be My disciple. But don’t begin until you count the cost.’”  (Luke 14:25-28a NLT)

In the corporate world, the phrase “the cost of doing business” is self-explanatory. There is an expected cost associated with leading or owning a business. It may be purchasing a building, paying employees, or buying a new vehicle, but I don’t know many people who jump into a life of discipleship and ask about the cost…

Living as if following Christ has no cost is like charging a credit card to its limit and then asking the bank to change the balance back to zero. Just as Paul wrote, “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” (Romans 6:1–2)  Don’t get me wrong, discipleship is not a works-based system, but it does require our obedience and devotion.

Christians are fond of celebrating the lavish grace and unfailing compassion of Jesus, but we are sometimes hesitant to discuss the expectations of following Christ. But what a disservice to the Lord, especially as we remember that pain that He willingly endured so we could receive that grace. Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer reminds us that “salvation is free, but discipleship will cost you your life.” What is discipleship costing you right now? 

-- Excerpted from “Altar’d: The Transforming Power of Surrender” by Susan O. Kent 

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DISCIPLESHIP… BEGINS WITH A DECISION

God wants you to grow up: "We must stop acting like children…Then we will grow in every way and be more like Christ.” (Ephesians 4:14a,15b CEV)

Your heavenly Father's goal for you is to mature and develop the characteristics of Jesus Christ, living a life of love and humble service. Sadly, millions of Christians grow older but never grow up. 

They're stuck in perpetual spiritual infancy, remaining in diapers and booties. The reason is because they never intended to grow. Spiritual growth is not automatic; it takes an intentional commitment. You must want to grow, decide to grow, make an effort to grow, and persist in growing.

Discipleship is the process of becoming like Christ, and it always begins with a decision: "'Come, be My disciple,' Jesus said to him. So Matthew got up and followed Him" (Matthew 9:9 NLT).

When the first disciples chose to follow Jesus, they didn't understand all the implications of their decision. They simply responded to Jesus' invitation. 

That's all you need to get started: decide to become a disciple. 

-- From "The Purpose Driven Life Daily Devotional" by Rick Warren

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DISCIPLESHIP… IS A PROCESS

“Jesus said to the people who believed in Him, ‘You are truly My disciples if you remain faithful to My teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’”  (John 8:31-32 NLT)

By definition, a disciple is a follower, one who accepts and assists in spreading the teachings of a Master. A Christian disciple is a person who accepts and assists in the spreading of the Good News of Jesus Christ. Christian discipleship is the process by which disciples grow in faith and are equipped by the Holy Spirit for ministry. This process requires believers to respond to the Holy Spirit’s prompting to examine their thoughts, words and actions and compare them with the Word of God. This requires that we read, study and apply biblical teachings; pray regularly; participate in worship and fellowship with other believers; and reach out in witness and mission sharing the love of Christ in word and deed. 

-- From “Got Questions Ministries” 

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THE WAY OF THE CROSS

“And Jesus said to all, ‘If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.’”  (Luke 9:23-24 ESV)

The denying ourselves, and taking up our cross, in the full extent of the expression, is not a thing of small concern. It is not expedient only, as are some of the circumstantials of religion, but it is absolutely, indispensably necessary, either to our becoming or continuing Christ’s disciples… If we do not continually deny ourselves, we do not learn of Him, but of other masters. If we do not take our cross daily, we do not come after Him, but after the world, or the prince of the world, or our own fleshly mind. If we are not walking in the way of the cross, we are not following Him. We are not treading in His steps, but going back from, or at least wide of, Christ. 

-- From “The Works of John Wesley, Sermon XLVIII, On Self Denial” by Albert C. Outler

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DISCIPLESHIP INCLUDES EVERYTHING

“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.”  (1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NIV)

A disciple of Jesus is not necessarily one devoted to doing specifically religious things as that is usually understood. To repeat, I am learning from Jesus how to lead my life, my whole life, my real life.

So as His disciple I am not necessarily learning how to do religious things, either as part of “full-time service” or as a “part-time service.” My discipleship to Jesus is, within clearly definable limits, not a matter of what I do, but of how I do it. And it covers everything, “religious” or not. 

-- Dallas Willard in “The Divine Conspiracy”

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TRUSTING IN GOD OUR SAVIOR

“But now, O Jacob, listen to the Lord who created you. O Israel, the one who formed you says, ‘Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine. When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.’”  (Isaiah 43:1-3a NLT)

What do we do when the earth shakes, the mountains split in two, and the sun and the moon go dark?

We do exactly what we should do every day: live the gospel as Jesus preached it and lived it, trusting not in ourselves nor in the material world but in God, who was at the beginning and will be still after the end.

-- Mary Anna Vidakovich in “Meeting God on the Mountain”

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DAILY SURRENDER

Jesus said, "I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you."  (John 13:15 NIV)

It can be tempting to always look at the big picture, the five-year vision, or the end goal whether you are in corporate America, running a household, or just planning your life. It’s exciting to think about how great life will be when you see the vision fulfilled and you meet the goal. Don’t get me wrong, visioning is critical because you need to know what you want and where you are going, but there is no five-year vision without a daily plan to get there. You cannot cross the finish line without taking every step beginning at the starting gate, and we cannot be transformed if we do not surrender on a daily basis… Every change in behavior, attitude, and heart begins with a desire, and it is only accomplished by making a choice every day to get there.

These words were spoken by Jesus to His disciples in the last week of His life. Jesus had proven His authority and He had predicted His death and resurrection. Now, as He spent a meal with them, He demonstrated an act of service and then said these words, “I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.” He had given the example to follow. Not just what they observed that night, but every day they walked with Him and healed and taught and ministered to others. He was the example. They did not have to wonder what to do; they just had to follow.

Pastor Eugene Peterson, quoting Friedrich Nietzsche, might describe this daily practice of being altar’d as a “long obedience in the same direction.” It is only when we choose a life of daily surrender that we will fulfill the vision and accomplish the goal set before us. If you read the Gospels, you will find that Jesus gave us many examples of how to live: “Follow Me.” “This is how you pray.” “Go and make disciples.” May we embrace a life of daily surrender that Jesus left as an example. 

-- Susan O. Kent in “Altar’d: The Transforming Power of Surrender”

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DISCIPLINE AND DISQUALIFICATION

“Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.”  (1 Corinthians 9:24-27 NKJV)

Part of discipline is doing things by the rules. The Christian needs to have a concern for any significant break in the discipline which would take them out of the opportunity to serve Christ and His Body for even a short period of time.

One of the most classic cases in the Olympics of disqualification occurred in the 1908 marathon. Having run through the streets, until finally he staggered into the stadium, falling four times as he made the oval around the stadium, he was finally helped across the finish line by some well-meaning members of his team. He was disqualified as the winner because he had been helped. He had won the race, but the rules had been broken.

There are people in the Christian life who think that the ends justify any means you use. Do anything as long as you get results. The Olympics are telling us that the means are as important as the ends. That disqualification ought to be a concern, and the training and discipline of the Christian life ought always to be part of our experience. 

– George O. Wood in a sermon titled “The Christian Olympian”

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THE MEANING OF DISCIPLESIP

“Wherever I go the people say,
‘What’s the news? What’s the news?
What is the order of the day?
What’s the news? What’s the news?’
Oh, I have got the Good News to tell.
My Savior has done all things well.
He triumphed over death and hell.
That’s the news. That’s the news.”
(from the old Welsh hymn “Beyond Live and Beckoning Stars”)

That’s the good news of the gospel wanting to be born in you…

Are you ready to say with Mary: “Let it be, to me, according to Thy word”? Are you ready to say with Jesus: “Not My will, but Thy will be done”? Nothing more. Nothing less. Nothing else.

Are you ready to pray the greatest prayer ever uttered, the simple but great Amen… “So Be It”?

The symbol embodying the most fundamental meaning of discipleship is the cross, not the ladder. We glory in the cross of Christ, not the ladder of success, a ladder kicked away forever when Jesus slipped on the Via Dolorosa.

Remember this: There are no rungs, only nails, on the cross. 

-- Leonard Sweet in “A Cup of Coffee at the Soul Café”

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INTENTIONAL ABOUT THE WAY WE LIVE

“But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to His mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.”  (Titus 3:4-5 NRSV)

Following Christ comes naturally to no one. As Christians, we are all on a journey under the guidance of the Holy Spirit who is forming and molding us to look increasingly like our Savior. That said, it can be easy for us to slip back into behaviors that do not represent Christ, which is why we must be intentional about the way we live…

Good works are necessary for the Christian life -- not to achieve our salvation, but to display it to the world. Our behaviors reveal what we truly believe, but we often discount the influence of our environment upon the ways in which we live.

There are many things contending for priority in our hearts -- culture, relationships, career, money, and so on -- and when we devote ourselves to anything other than Christ, we will live in ways that discredit the good news He desires for all to embrace.

We all have blind spots, which is why we need deep relationships within the body of Christ… Take the courageous step of asking whether or not your behavior reflects what you claim to believe. Doing so might require you to make some changes about the way you live, but they will lead you to a deeper intimacy with Christ, which is worth even the greatest of sacrifices. 

-- Excerpted from the study guide to “The Book of Titus” by Chip Ingram

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COMMITTED TO DAILY DISCIPLINE

“Then Jesus said to them all, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.’”  (Luke 9:23 NKJV)

Making the conscious effort to do something intentional and beneficial with a relationship is always our opportunity, irrespective of how we feel… And that includes committing ourselves to the discipline of daily time and attention regarding our relationship with God. What better way to grow spiritually than through the generous love of deliberate action?

Conscious effort is the first and biggest step toward the “becoming” part of spiritual formation -- the decision and the discipline of it -- the element that lost its way so easily when all we had to fall back on was our desire.

In our men’s group someone pointed out the infrequent occurrence of the miraculous in most of our day-to-day lives. “It’s not that we are looking for something spectacular in particular,” he said. “But things just happen around people of great faith who choose to believe.”

He is exactly right. Saying “I choose You, Jesus; it is my intention and my goal to follow more deliberately in Your way” can open the door to the most amazing things. 

-- Adapted from “Get Real: A Spiritual Journey for Men” by Derek Maul

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SEEKING TO FOLLOW CHRIST

“The gifts Christ gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:11-13)

The church is the worshipping community. We are that body of people who are learning together to repent, pray, and serve in the light of our history and an imagination that is teaching us to do so. The focus of our history and imagination is Jesus Christ, in Whom we see what it means to live in repentance, prayer, and service. We seek to follow Him, to be His disciples, and to undertake the disciplines that such a life requires. 

-- Craig R. Dykstra in “Vision and Character”

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OPPORTUNITY, DECISION AND LEGACY

“Then Jesus said to the crowd, ‘If any of you wants to be My follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow Me.’”  (Luke 9:23 NLT)

In his classic book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” author Steven Covey begins by asking us, the readers, to imagine a series of our friends standing to speak at our own memorial service. The stories we would like them to tell, Covey suggests, and the achievements we would want to see referenced, amount to a good starting place when we consider our long-term goals.

It doesn’t matter if we are twelve, thirty-five, sixty-eight, or pushing ninety, each one of us has the privilege and the opportunity to engage the time we have available with the conscious application of meaning and purpose…

For me, three distinct certainties emerge: 1) Each moment holds the possibility of fullness; that is our opportunity. 2) Each day can be a gift we share with a needy world; that is our decision. 3) Each lifetime bears the fruit of those daily decisions; that will be our legacy. 

-- Adapted from “Get Real: A Spiritual Journey for Men” by Derek Maul

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MATURE CHRISTIAN DISCIPLESHIP

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”  (Acts 2:42 NIV)

One aspect of the world that I have been able to identify as harmful to Christians is the assumption that anything worthwhile can be acquired at once. We assume that if something can be done at all, it can be done quickly and efficiently. Our attention spans have been conditioned by thirty-second commercials. Our sense of reality has been flattened by thirty-page abridgments.

It is not difficult in such a world to get a person interested in the message of the gospel; it is terrifically difficult to sustain the interest. Millions of people in our culture make decisions for Christ, but there is a dreadful attrition rate. Many claim to be born again, but the evidence for mature Christian discipleship is slim. In our kind of culture anything, even news about God, can be sold if it is packaged freshly; but when it loses its novelty, it goes on the garbage heap. There is a great market for religious experience in our world; there is little enthusiasm for the patient acquisition of virtue, little inclination to sign up for a long apprenticeship in what earlier generations of Christians called holiness. 

-- Eugene Peterson in “A Long Obedience in the Same Direction”

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ROUTINE ACTS OF DEVOTION

“But as for you… pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”  (1 Timothy 6:11-12 NRSV)

A few years ago we started a praise band at church. In that context commitment took over where my desire has always tended to fall short. Simply put, I placed myself and my Ovation [guitar] in a position of discipline and encouragement, and my ability to play has grown accordingly.

It turns out my faith is a lot like that.

Being a disciple of Jesus is much like playing guitar in the band. While desire may be the spark that ignites the fire, my spiritual journey flames out with relative ease – all too readily and distressingly quickly. My love for God can also find its way into the closet, and there it gathers dust; God does not force His presence on me any more than my neglected instrument will leap into my hands to say, “Let’s play.”

There’s a lot to be said for showing up to play music with the band every week, for picking up my guitar every day, and for running through even the simplest songs of praise. In the middle of such routine acts of devotion, I often find that God’s love sneaks up on me unawares.

It’s that “long obedience in the same direction” idea. 

-- Derek Maul in “Get Real: A Spiritual Journey for Men”

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OUR DAY-TO-DAY LIVES

Then Jesus said to them all: “Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow Me.”  (Luke 9:23 NIV)

The structure and the value system of our world have evolved outside of God’s promises for so long that it seems we are compelled to struggle against our very nature in order to follow Jesus. Like the high-board diver who must determine to overcome his reflexes each time he launches himself into the abyss, we must renew our decision for discipleship every single day. Then, also like the diver, we discover the cool, refreshing, life-giving waters and celebrate that what we have left behind is the dryness and dust.

The skewed priorities of the culture we inhabit run deep.  They are etched into the fabric of our decision–making processes and re-enforced through a thousand messages and object lessons every day.

The morality of faithlessness and instant gratification pushes on our decision-making processes every time we engage the world on its terms. From pop-up ads to song lyrics to posters on the subway walls; from selfish drivers to a boss who lacks integrity and expects compromises; from the allure of another drink to the indecent propositions of a co-worker. The world is broken and we live in it: end of story.

And so we dare not leave our faith at home or bottled up at church when we venture out. We dare not pretend that we can live the Christian life on our own. If Jesus had to say [to His Father], “Not what I want but what You want” (Matthew 26:39), then how much more do we need the power of God’s transforming presence in our day-to-day lives? 

-- Derek Maul in “Get Real: A Spiritual Journey for Men”