Title: 123117 message


The Demands of Discipleship
Luke 14:25-33, Matthew 28:18-20, Matthew 16:24-26

Discipleship is the process every believer goes through to become more like Christ.

“For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” - Romans 8:29

Discipling (or Disciple Making) is when believers help other people know Christ and become like Him.

1. Count the Cost

Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down 

first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.”
Luke 14:25–33

(v.25) “Now great crowds accompanied him...”

(v. 33) So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

There sits Simon; so foolishly wise
Proudly he's tending his nets
Then Jesus calls; and the boats drift away
All that he owns he forgets

More than the nets he abandoned that day
He found that his pride was soon drifting away
It's hard to imagine the freedom we find from the things we leave behind

2. Obey My Commands

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:18–20

		“…teaching them to observe all that I have 
		commanded you.” 

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him,
“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”- John 8:31

3. Take Up Your Cross

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?”
Matthew 16:24–26

Active Discipleship is self-denial, decisions we make to conform our lives to the pattern of Jesus. 

Responsive Discipleship occurs when we respond rightly to the challenges God allows in our lives.

“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” 
- C.S. Lewis

		“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come
		and die.” 
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Two implications for how we
approach discipleship.

1.	Our evangelism must be honest.

“Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession... Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

2.	Our priorities must change.