The Cost of Discipleship.

Leviticus 25-26, Luke 14

“If you want to be my disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison—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.” – Luke 14:26-27 NLT

As is clear from a reading of the book of Leviticus, being a child of Abraham, one of the chosen people of God, was costly. That distinction came with a great number of conditions. It was not easy to live up to the standards to which God had called them. There were rules, regulations and requirements of all kinds. And God took them quite seriously. They were not suggestions, but commandments. And in chapter 26, He made it quite clear that disobedience to His commands had dire consequences. In a series of "it…then" statements, God let the people know what would happen if they obeyed, and what would happen if they disobeyed. Obedience would bring prosperity, power, peace, protection, and the abiding presence of God. But disobedience would result in disease, defeat, drought, destruction and eventual deportation. And everything God predicted and promised in these verse took place. As long as they were obedient, God blessed them. During the reigns of King David and his son, Solomon, Israel became a prosperous and powerful nation. He gave them victory over their enemies and during the days of King Solomon, He allowed them to live in peace and prosperity. Until King Solomon disobeyed God. In spite of his great wisdom, King Solomon disobeyed God and married foreign women. He ended up with 700 wives and 300 concubines. But it got worse. "So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and did not wholly follow the Lord, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods" (1 Kings 11:6-8 ESV). He disobeyed God. He broke God's commandments. And as a result, God split his kingdom in two. The days of prosperity and peace were over. And from that point forward the two divided kingdoms of the people of God found themselves on a downward spiral of disobedience that led to their eventual destruction and deportation.

What does this passage reveal about God?

God had made the terms of His covenant quite simple. Yes, it was going to be difficult, and virtually impossible for the people to keep all the commands He had given them. But He had provided ample means by which they could receive atonement and forgiveness for their sins. But they would have to refrain from turning to false gods and turning their backs on the one true God. He had told the, "I will live among you, and I will not despise you. I will walk among you; I will be your God, and you will be my people. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so you would no longer be their slaves. I broke the yoke of slavery from your neck so you can walk with your heads held high" (Leviticus 26:11-13 NLT). He promised His presence. He reminded them about His powerful works of the past and assured them that there was more to come – if they would simply obey Him and remain faithful to Him. Yes, it would be costly. His blessings came with requirements. They would have to practice justice. They would have to treat one another with respect and dignity. His will would have to supersede their own. His requirements, however unreasonable or ridiculous they may have sounded, would have to be followed. The very idea of the Sabbath Year and the Year of Jubilee had to have come across as totally nonsensical to the people. Releasing someone from paying you what they owed you had to have seemed unfair and unreasonable. And all indications are that the people never really obeyed these laws. In fact, God seems to intimate that once the people were deported as slaves into foreign countries, "the land shall rest, and enjoy its Sabbaths. As long as it lies desolate it shall have rest, the rest that it did not have on your Sabbaths when you were dwelling in it" (Leviticus 26:34-35 ESV). God had a reason behind every rule and requirement. Ultimately, it was so the people would know that He was God. He wanted them to grow in their dependence upon Him and recognize their need for His presence and power among them. They couldn't keep these rules without Him. When they broke them, they needed His forgiveness, made possible through the sacrificial system He had provided for them.

What does this passage reveal about man?

We love the blessings of God. To a certain degree, we believe we somehow deserve the blessings of God. He owes them to us. But His blessings were directly tied to obedience. Faithfulness was an essential quality for those who wanted to experience God's blessing on their lives. And yet the people of God became lazy and lax in their relationship with Him. They continued to expect His blessings in spite of their disobedience and refusal to keep their part of the covenant. They failed to remember that their was a cost and commitment to being the people of God. They began to believe that God's rules were optional, not required. They began to take short-cuts and create loop holes. They compromised and cut corners. All the while believing that their status as His chosen people somehow guaranteed them His blessings, regardless of their conduct or the condition of their hearts. Repeatedly God forewarns them, "But in spite of this you will not listen to me, but walk contrary to me" (Leviticus 26:27 ESV). The word "contrary" carries the idea of open hostility or opposition. They would live their lives in direct opposition to God, rather than in obedience to Him. And as a result, God warned them, "then I will walk contrary to you in fury, and I myself will discipline you sevenfold for your sins" (Leviticus 26:27 ESV).

They were going to fail to keep God's laws, and He knew it. They were going to reject Him as their God, by the way in which they conducted their lives – in disobedience and unfaithfulness.

How would I apply what I’ve read to my own life?

And yet, God remained faithful. I am amazed at God's unfailing love and unwavering commitment to His covenant. In spite of them, He would bless them. Yes, He would lovingly discipline them, but He would also restore them. He provided a way back. He told them that "if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers in their treachery that they committed against me, and also in walking contrary to me, so that I walked contrary to them and brought them into the land of their enemies—if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity, then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and I will remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land" (Leviticus 26:40-42 ESV). All they would have to do is confess and God would restore them to the land. But amazingly, they would fail to do that as well. Nowhere in the story of the people of Israel do we see them confess and return to God. Even in the midst of their exile, they remained unrepentant and unwilling to return to Him. And yet, God would restore them – in spite of them. "Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not spurn them, neither will I abhor them so as to destroy them utterly and break my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God. But I will for their sake remember the covenant with their forefathers, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am the Lord" (Leviticus 26:44-45 ESV). My God is faithful.

He has called me to live in obedience to His indwelling Spirit and in keeping with His Word. He has set me apart as His child and commanded me to grow in increasing likeness to His Son. He has provided me with His Word to guide me and His Spirit to empower me. But life as a disciple of Jesus Christ is not without its costs. Jesus said, "If you want to be my disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison—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" (Luke 14:26-27 NLT). Following Jesus was not going to be a cake walk. There are tremendous blessings that come with a commitment to Christ, not the least of which is eternal life. But there are also costs. We must put off our old lives and leave behind our old loves. We cannot attempt to love God and love the world at the same time. Our conduct must line up with our confession. Our behavior must reflect our beliefs. Our new nature, provided for us by Christ through His death on the cross, must show up in our everyday lives. But our old natures will be an ever-present problem. We will be prone to cling to our old way of living, to live according to the ways of this world. We will find ourselves holding on to old habits and compromising our conduct rather than dying to self daily. There will be times when our light will dim, our saltiness will diminish, and our faith will waiver. But God is faithful. He will do His part. He will continue to lovingly discipline us, patiently perfect us, and relentlessly conform us into the likeness of His Son. He will finish what He started. He will complete what He began. He will accomplish everything He has promised. And all He asks is that I do my part and remain faithful.

Father, I want to live for You. I don't want to compromise my life and let this world distract me from living in faithfulness to You. But I need Your help. I need Your Holy Spirit's power. Thank You for making the Christian life possible. Thank You for providing me with everything I need to live the life You have called me to. Keep me increasingly more dependent on You, not only for my salvation, but my sanctification – my ongoing transformation into Christ-likeness. Amen

Costly Obedience.

Exodus 37-38, Mark 16

Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made all that the Lord commanded Moses. – Exodus 38:22 ESV

Bezalel was called and equipped by God to serve a special purpose. God "filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold and silver and bronze,in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, for work in every skilled craft. And he has inspired him to teach, both him and Oholiab the son of Ahisamach of the tribe of Dan. He has filled them with skill to do every sort of work done by an engraver or by a designer or by an embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, or by a weaver—by any sort of workman or skilled designer" (Exodus 35:30-35 ESV). This seemingly ordinary man had been extraordinarily gifted by God to accomplish a very important mission that would help provide the people of God with a means of access to Him. He was to personally craft the majority of the elements that made up the Tabernacle, including the Ark of the Covenant, the Table of Show Bread, the Golden Lampstand, the Altar of Incense, the Altar of Burnt Offering, the Bronze Basin and all the hangings for the court. Yes, he had an assistant named Oholiab, and there were other craftsmen involved, but the majority of the work and the oversight of all that was done fell to Bezelel. And Moses records that he made all that the Lord had commanded. Can you imagine the amount of hours he spent laboring on the construction of the Tabernacle? Just think about the pressure of having to build something for God and according to His exacting specifications. Talk about a picky homeowner. Bezalel would have had to have dedicated virtually every waking moment to the task of preparing each of the elements necessary for the Tabernacle to be finished, and there could be no cutting corners, no doing it his way. He had to be fully obedient to God's plan. He had to be meticulously accurate – no matter the cost.

What does this passage reveal about God?

God chose a man to do His divine will. Surely, God could have built the Tabernacle Himself. He could have miraculously fabricated the entire structure out of thin air. After all, He made the entire universe out of nothing. But just as He commanded Noah to build the ark, the divine means of salvation from destruction in Noah's day, God would have a man build the Tabernacle. But He would supernaturally equip this man to do His will. Without the Spirit of God, it would have been impossible for Bezalel to accomplish the will of God. All throughout chapters 37-38 of Exodus we read the words, "Bezalel made," "he overlaid," "he cast," and "he made." But we must always remember that, behind the scenes, God was working through Bezalel by means of His indwelling Spirit. God was using a man to craft the materials through which He would provide access into His presence and forgiveness for sin.

In the gospel of Mark, we read of the ultimate sacrifice on the part of a man. Jesus Christ, fully man, gave His life as payment for the sins of mankind. Paul tells us, "And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross" (Philippians 2:8 ESV). Jesus was the Son of God, but came to earth in the form of a man. He was the God-man. He took on human flesh and became one of us, in order that He might fulfill God's divine plan for the redemption of mankind. The Tabernacle was a temporary solution to an eternal problem. It couldn't solve man's ongoing enslavement to sin and his ultimate destiny with death. In spite of Bezalel's best efforts, the Tabernacle would never provide mankind with a permanently restored relationship with God. But God had a better plan all along. It would involve another man who would sacrifice greatly in order to accomplish God's will. Jesus would end up giving His life. And like Bezalel, Jesus was divinely commissioned and equipped for the task at hand. Luke reminds us that, at the beginning of Jesus' ministry, He was filled with and led by the Spirit of God. "And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness" (Luke 4:1 ESV). All throughout His earthly ministry, Jesus was accompanied by the Spirit of God. The Father would provide His Son with His indwelling Spirit and empower Him for mission for which He had called Him.

And after Jesus' death, when Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome came to the empty tomb, they were surprised to find the stone rolled away and instead of the body of Jesus, an angel. He told them, "Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here" (Mark 16:6 ESV). Jesus had accomplished the will of His Father. He had done what God had sent Him to do. He had been obedient even to the point of death. He had sacrificed His own life, according to His Father's divine plan, so that we might have eternal life. He died so that we might live.

What does this passage reveal about man?

Without God, we are nothing. Without the Spirit of God, we are powerless and helpless. While men have accomplished many great feats and done many great things over the centuries, it is impossible to accomplish the will of God apart from the Spirit of God. We are totally incapable of doing anything truly worthy or righteous without God's help. The Scriptures describe us with these not-so-flattering terms: "We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment" (Isaiah 64:6 ESV). Bezalel was just a man. To do God's will he was going to need God's Spirit. He was going to need God's equipping to accomplish God's plan. Man without God is like a solar-powered battery without the Sun – powerless and useless. God's Tabernacle was of divine origin. It was based on divine plans and would require divine enablement if it was to meet divine expectations. Doing God's will always requires God's empowerment.

How would I apply what I’ve read to my own life?

God provided the Tabernacle for the Israelites. He even provided the plans. Then He provided the man to do the job and equipped him with the Spirit-empowered gifting to do all that he would need to do. God provided me with Christ. He knew that, on my own, I would never be able to live up to His righteous standard. So He provided His Son as my sin substitute. He lived the life I could not live, and died the death I deserved to die. He took my place. God provided the means by which I could enjoy a restored relationship with Him. But now that I am in that right relationship with Him, He continues to provide me with His indwelling Holy Spirit, so that I might be able to accomplish His will in His strength, not my own. I have His Spirit within me, providing me with all that I need to live obediently to His will. Like Paul, I can say, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20 ESV). His Spirit enables me, empowers me, guides me, directs me, encourages me, and convicts me. It is the Spirit of God that enables me to live in obedience to God. It is the Spirit of God that makes it possible for me to live according to the will of God. But obeying the Spirit isn't easy. I still have my sinful nature that urges me to do things my way. I have to constantly fight my sinful self and its desire to satisfy my own will rather than God's. Paul reminds me, "walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do" (Galatians 5:16-17 ESV). It took a lot for Bezalel to build the Tabernacle. It cost a lot for Jesus to provide salvation for mankind. And it costs me to daily live my life submitted to the Spirit of God so that I might accomplish the will of God for my life. Obedience to God is costly. It will require sacrifice. But God always provides the strength we need to accomplish His will.

Father, You have called me and You have equipped me. You have called me to live a life of obedience to You, and have provided the power necessary to pull it off. But I must still submit to Your Spirit's leading in my life. I must obey His promptings. Just as Bezalel had to follow Your divine directions and ignore any urges to cut corners or do things his way, I must willingly submit to Your Spirit's presence in my life. I want to obey no matter what it may cost me. Thank You for providing Your Son as a sacrifice for my sins and the means by which I might be saved. Thank You for providing Your Spirit as the source of my daily strength and guidance. Continue to help me live willingly submitted to Your Spirit in all that I do. Amen

Costly, But Well Worth It.

Luke 14:25-34

"So you cannot become my disciple without giving up everything you own." – Luke 14:33 NLT

The cost of following Jesus. That's not a particularly popular topic today. Partly because we live in a society that has been saturated and soaked in an atmosphere of ease and comfort. We have been trained to expect everything instantaneously and relatively easily. Even the old slogan, "NO PAIN, NO GAIN" seems to have fallen out of popularity. In its place we find a plethora of options that require little or no pain, but seemingly with all the gain. Weight loss pills, potions and even surgeries, have taken the pain out of looking good. Promises of virtually instant weight loss, quick investment returns, easy money, fast food, ready-t0-go meals, and while-you-wait credit approval have made us lazy and adverse to anything that requires effort on our part. So the idea of discipleship to Christ being costly is not exactly a popular topic these days. There are many pastors and teachers who, while knowing what the Bible says about the subject, choose to downplay it because they fear the reaction it might bring.

But if there was ever a time when the message of costly discipleship was needed, it is now. It is the message Jesus unapologetically preached. He minced no words and left no one with the impression that following Him was going to be easy going and trouble free. He made it painfully clear that becoming His disciple was going to be costly and would require tremendous commitment. No half-hearted, weak-willed individuals need sign up. Listen to what He said: “If anyone comes to me and does not hatehis own father and mother, and wife and children, and brothers and sisters, and even his own life,he cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:26 NET). That's pretty costly. Of course, we tend to soften it up by qualifying that Jesus was not telling us to actually hate our fathers, mothers, wives, children, brothers and sisters. He was just saying that, in comparison to our love for Him, our love for them would be like hate. But I think what Jesus is warning us is that following Him was going to cost a lot of people their families. They would lose the love of their own fathers and mothers by choosing to follow Him. They would face rejection and ridicule by their own families, and they needed to be okay with it. Those family members would beg them to give up Jesus and come home. But Jesus is warning them that to be His follower, they would have to reject their own families – an action that would be viewed as hate by those closest to them. And Jesus also warns them that they must hate their own lives – the lives they had come to know and love. Their way of living was going be replaced with the way of Jesus. They couldn't keep looking back and longing for the "good old days" when things were easier or seemingly better. Once they chose to follow after Jesus, that old way of life was to be dead to them.

One of the most famous proponents of the cost of discipleship was Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor who lived during the rise of the Third Reich. He would stand against Hitler and his propaganda machine, ending up in prison, where he would die. He wrote a book called The Cost of Discipleship and in it he writes, “When all is said and done, the life of faith is nothing if not an unending struggle of the spirit with every available weapon against the flesh.” Dietrich knew from experience just how true this statement was. He suffered greatly under the oppressive regime of Hitler. But he spoke boldly, calling believers to stand up against the lies of the enemy. He called them to wake up out of their stupor and complacency and stand for the cause of Christ. His efforts met with deaf ears and resulted in his imprisonment. He goes on to write, “Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: 'Ye were bought at a price', and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.”

Following after Jesus is costly. It cost God His own Son. It cost Jesus His own life. It costs us our pride. It demands of us our lives, passions, worldly affections, idols, wills, agendas, friendships, family affiliations, dreams, desires, and so much more. But in return, we receive eternal life, forgiveness of sin, salvation, a restored relationship with God, a new family, the indwelling Holy Spirit, peace, power, hope, joy, direction, protection, assurance of salvation, and so much more. Yes, following Jesus is costly, but it is also well worth any pain it my require on our part. The gain far outweighs the pain. Paul put it this way: "Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later" (Romans 8:18 NLT).

Father, make us aware of just how costly following Your Son really is. Don't let us settle for something cheap and imitation. Don't allow us to diminish the value of the gift by demanding that it require nothing from us of of us. Following Your will required Jesus to give up His life. Following Your Son requires us to do the same – no more, no less. But thank You that our gain far outweighs any pain we may suffer on Your behalf. Amen.

Ken Miller Grow Pastor & Minister to Men kenm@christchapelbc.org