Tuesday, September 6, 2022

Sermon September 3-4, 2022

Title: The work of discipleship!
Text: Luke 14:25-35

Facebook live: The work of discipleship!

25 Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, 26 “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. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

To live for Jesus is to deny life itself. Boy, discipleship is hard!

But we all know life can be hard. Harder for some more than others. You might feel the difficulty of life now or in years past. Success or failure, pressure is exerted.

How’s your health, job, family?
Do you have friends or lack thereof?
How about growing pains or just aches and pains?
And now Jesus tells these followers in the crowd:

27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

Sounds like a good way to help those who were following Jesus to fall away, or run away doesn’t it?

In our Old Testament lesson today we hear the very familiar call.

... choose life, that you and your offspring may live,

The idea of choosing sounds good to we who, living in a democratic society, get to choose quite a lot of things.

We can choose where we live in the country,
We choose what career we might wish to go into,
We choose whom we marry.

The call of … choose life … is often confused in the life of a Christian and applied to the work of evangelism - as though we can choose to believe just as we can choose to be born.

The gift of life is both given in our natural birth as well as the gift of faith is given in our spiritual birth from a God who came to redeem those who were unable to redeem themselves and that is why the text here today is a good one for us to understand and rejoice in.

The call of God in this text is not to the world but to God’s people Israel.

Those chosen children of Abraham whom Moses had given God’s Law written on the tablets of stone by the finger of God, were called by Him to choose to stay in the relationship with Him apart from falling away into sin, false gods and idol worship.

This keeping of God’s commandments, his statutes and rules would bring God’s blessing to them as they entered into the land that He was giving them to possess.

So too our own lives, as we cannot be Christ’s disciple without bearing our own cross.

The reality of Jesus’ call … to hate father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters … figuratively as opposed to literally, yes and even his own life, shows the difficulty of being a disciple.

This, none the less, is a serious matter meaning that we cannot let anything draw us away from the gift of following Christ and being his disciple, the gift of being his child. The gift of being marked as redeemed by him!

Some years ago, when witnessing to a friend, he joyfully came to me to proclaim that the night before he had prayed to Jesus - receiving him as his savior. What wonderful news! He, was quite happy because this had been a long and tedious process with many and various talks about Jew and Gentile, Old and New Testament, and Sabbath (Saturday)verses Sunday worship. I so wanted to help him transition into being a disciple or follower of Jesus.

To be a follower – a disciple – requires an active walk. Jesus called, “Follow me” to those fishermen. He didn’t say, “Stay where you are, I got this!”

When I first thought of going into ministry I wanted to learn, to go to seminary and to sit at the feet of the professors and to learn. I didn’t want so much the work of the pastor. I didn’t want to visit the sick, or hold the hand of a grieving family member who has just lost a dear loved one. I certainly didn’t want to do a funeral. But that is what being a pastor requires and I’ve done my share of funerals as you know.

I preach to those at funerals hoping that by God’s word and the working of the Holy Spirit some may believe. I preach here so that the Lord of life by that same Spirit would strengthen our faith and walk as disciples to one end.

St. Augustine writes:

“Why do I preach? Why do I sit up here? What do I live for? For this one thing alone: that together we may live with Christ! This is my passion, this is my honor, this is my fame, this is my joy, this is my one possession! … But I do not want to be saved without you!

Augustine’s focus was on making disciples. Changing lives with the Gospel and the gifts of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Saying:

“When I exhort you, I [first] peer into myself. For one is a hollow preacher of God’s word on the outside if one is not [first] a hearer on the inside”

Augustine and the Catechumenate Pg 188

28 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? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’

There is a cost to becoming a Christian and with that we must place Christ first.

Many put family first and it certainly is a great blessing to have a loving family but the devil uses all things to divide and pull us away from Jesus and the family can be used for that as well.

I did a baptism a few years ago for a little boy. The family doesn’t attend church here anymore though they desired baptism for their child. They had been a member once but moved … to Clarkston.

As I spoke with them about the importance of regular worship and being fed God’s word the mom said, “Well we’re a sports family and the weekends are tied up with the Tigers, Lions and Red Wings!”

It’s funny how from Clarkston to Peace is too far that being in worship even occasionally is impossible, but driving to Downtown Detroit for a sporting event is no big deal and becomes a family tradition.

It puts a bit of perspective as to what Jesus is talking about. What is it that draws you away? Give it some thought.

What is it that draws loved ones away or our kids?
The devil divides and he delight in division.

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

The great work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer the Cost of Discipleship comes to mind.

He writes:

“The messengers of Jesus will be hated to the end of time. They will be blamed for all the division which rend cities and homes. Jesus and his disciples will be condemned on all sides for undermining family life, and for leading the nation astray; they will be called crazy fanatics and disturbers of the peace. The disciples will be sorely tempted to desert their Lord. But the end is also near, and they must hold on and persevere until it comes. Only he will be blessed who remains loyal to Jesus and his word until the end.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship Bonhoeffer Works Vol 4 1937

This is the message of Jesus. Let nothing come between you and him and his saving Gospel. Some years ago, I officiated at the funeral of Betty Buchanan. Betty had the ups and downs of life that we all know. She had problems, she lost her husband in 1971; she lost her oldest son and then her youngest son as well, she lost her eyesight and largely the ability to care for herself, dementia stole her memory at times and brought the sad times of her life into view as if it was happening all over again.

On some visits she talked about her sons coming to visit her but they had been gone for 25 years or more.

But sill, the Holy Spirit was always with her pointing out that:

Jesus died for her, that Jesus carried her cares and burdens and that Jesus was always with her and would never leave her nor forsake her.

To be Christ’s is to give away all that you are (sinful and unclean) so that you receive from him all that he is. (Righteous and just)

God does the work of discipleship in you!

In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen













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