The Cost of Discipleship: Part 2

Mark 8:34-38

This is the second part of my teaching on this text. In the previous episode, I stated that you and I must take several ACTIONS to accept the costs associated with discipleship.

The first action was to “give up your identity.” We delved into the profound act of surrendering to Christ, choosing to follow His plans rather than our own, a necessary step in our journey of discipleship.

The following action was “take up your cross.” We looked at the extreme physical suffering experienced by those who died on crosses in Jesus’ day and made the parallel application to how painful it is for us to put our bodily appetites and desires to death.

The Second ACTION is:

Take Up Your Cross

Why did Jesus use this terminology? This was the death He was facing. From his struggle in the garden, we know that his flesh recoiled from it. It seems Jesus wanted to impress upon the disciples that this excruciating method of death would be to the physical body what death to self would be to the spiritual and emotional parts of our being. Our flesh dies hard; it hangs on tenaciously to life. We want to retain control. But Jesus says, “Count the cost; if you are not willing to take up the cross and die the kind of death I will die, you can’t be one of my disciples.”

Jesus urged them to take up this voluntary cross. No one is compelled to be a disciple of Christ. Who in their right mind would voluntarily submit to such suffering and death? To answer that question, we must look at the alternatives.

Notice that in verse 36, Jesus used the terms of commerce, profit, and loss. He said, “Whoever protects his physical life, whoever cares more for his body than for the Lord’s commands, will lose his spiritual life; he will lose his soul.” That doesn’t mean we neglect our bodies; they are the temple of the Holy Spirit. There are other Scriptures dealing with that subject. What is in view here is the focus on sacrificing the spiritual to protect the physical.

I once heard the story of a couple who felt called by God to serve on a foreign mission field. I don’t know the story’s origins, but I will share it as I recall it. They accepted that call and went to share the Gospel with tribal people in the jungle. The Lord began to bless them with a family in their years of service there. They had four sons.

One of the dangers they faced in the jungle environment was dangerous snakes. As the boys grew older, their father became concerned about them entering the jungle. He feared they would fall prey to one of these snakes. His fear became so acute that he finally decided to move his family back home to the United States, even though he knew God had called his family to minister to these tribal people.

Being missionaries, they arrived back in the United States without much in the way of finances. Some friends in the Deep South offered to let them live in a camper on the edge of their property, so they moved in. One day, the three oldest boys played outside and decided to explore under the camper. There, they got into a nest of rattlesnakes and were bitten repeatedly.

The father heard their cries and, by their broken and confused stories, realized what had happened. He grabbed all three of the boys, hustled them into the pickup truck, and, while shouting to his wife, rushed off for the distant hospital. In panic, he failed to see the youngest boy who had come out of the house.

Just as his wife came out of the house to see what all the commotion was about, she saw the pickup truck back over the youngest boy. She sat down on the steps, had a heart attack, and died right there. That father lost his entire family because he feared snakes. He lost the very thing he tried so hard to protect. That’s a tragic story, but I believe it illustrates Jesus’s point here. We must be willing to follow Him even to death.

However, let’s not assume that because this happened to one family, the result will always be the same. This story reminds us of the weight of our decisions and the importance of careful consideration regarding the cost of discipleship.

As I said earlier, this commitment is voluntary. There is no coercion here. If you want to be a disciple of Christ, you must take up the cross. You must take up your responsibility to actively crucify the flesh, and it is something that must be done every day.You might think all this talk about denying self and crucifying the flesh is depressing. But it’s reality—a reality we don’t hear much about in today’s version of what it means to be a Christian. We honor athletes who practice radical physical disciplines to pursue momentary glory in the spotlight. But we ridicule Christians who practice self-discipline as narrow or legalistic. I believe we do that because their example puts us to shame.

Are you and I willing to surrender the glory of the Son of Man, the glory of the Father, and the glory of the holy angels for the temporary applause and approval of men? That’s not a worthwhile trade in my book!

For the true disciple of Jesus, suffering is a reality. And the source of that suffering won’t just be the world. Much of it will come from ‘religious’ people, just like it did for Jesus and the disciples. The message of the cross is offensive; it causes people to react against it. But Jesus said if we take up the cross daily and follow Him, we are assured of eternal life.

The glory yet to come will far outstrip any earthly glory the world has ever seen. Jesus said whoever is willing to lose their life for the gospel’s sake will gain eternal life and the approval of the Father.

When Mark recorded these words of Jesus to “take up [your] cross,” he used grammar, which means – take it up right now! That is my counsel to you. If you have never taken up the cross, don’t wait; do it now. Or maybe, in the past, you’ve taken up your cross, that instrument of death, and vowed to cling to it until all of self is crucified? But as you analyze your life, you realize you’ve laid it down and returned to your way. As I prepared this teaching, I realized my need for repentance and renewal – to embrace the Cross again.

You can make any claim you want to about being a Christian, but remember, unless you are willing to deny yourself and take up your cross daily, you cannot be His disciple. This is the second action we take in embracing the cost of discipleship.

The Third ACTION is:

Follow Up Your Commitment

After you’ve given up your identity and taken up your cross, you must follow up on your commitment. Jesus told his hearers, “Follow me.” This is simple, direct, and explicit instruction in the present tense, signifying that it begins now and continues.

It’s important to begin well, but it’s not enough. Some people expect to get to heaven based on a decision they made years ago. Maybe you’re one of them? I’m not denying that your decision was valid, but how are you following it now? What impact does your initial decision have on your choices and walk with the Lord today? The direction of your life is much more important than where you’ve come from.

I’m reminded of the word of the Lord to the prophet Ezekiel in chapter 18 of his prophecy. “But when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man does, shall he live? All the righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; because of the unfaithfulness of which he is guilty and the sin which he has committed, because of them, he shall die.

 Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not fair.’ Hear now, O house of Israel, is it not My way which is fair, and your ways which are not fair?When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness, commits iniquity, and dies in it, it is because of the iniquity which he has done that he dies. Again, when a wicked man turns away from the wickedness which he committed and does what is lawful and right, he preserves himself alive. Because he considers and turns away from all the transgressions which he committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die.”

For years, Joyce and I had a poster on our bedroom door that showed a set of train tracks vanishing into the distant sunset. Underneath that picture were the words, “With you for the long run.” It reminded us to follow up on the commitments we made to each other many years before. Our marriage is only as good as our honoring of those commitments. In that light, the words of Jesus in John 8:31 and 32 are instructive. He said, “If you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed; And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” If you follow me [an ongoing process], you are indeed my disciples.

Following up on your commitment will make you different. Your primary desire will be to please Jesus, not others, not yourself. That will affect your choices—all of them. It will make you different from unsaved friends, family members, and many church members. Many today want the benefits and rewards of being a Christian without making the sacrifices Jesus demands.

Terry Laughlin makes this observation. “The world will tolerate a church that conducts its meetings and has its programs, but a church that vibrantly loves Jesus Christ, teaches His Word, and reaches out in love to address the sins that are destroying our nation, our families, and people’s relationship with the Lord will not be popular. When abortion, greed, drunkenness, divorce, premarital sex, and sodomy are handled in a true Biblical manner, there will be complaints against and criticisms of that church Body.”

If you’re committed to following Jesus, plan on it; you will face rejection and ridicule. Some will call you narrow-minded, old-fashioned, and so on. Others will say you take the Bible too literally. They’ll say, “Do you really think God expects us to follow that part of His Word today? The world has changed.” Or “You don’t have to do all that stuff.” 

They’re right; you don’t have to do all that stuff; there’s no force. But you’ll want to obey the commands of Christ because you love Jesus, and you’re grateful that He rescued you from a life of sin and eternal torment. The apostle Paul said it well in Romans 12. “I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

In verse 38, when the Son of Man comes, He will not be ashamed to call you one of His. Instead of losing your soul, as Jesus speaks about in verse 36, you will be welcomed into the glorious presence of the Father, the Son, and all the holy angels.

My friend, Jesus, is not sadistic; he doesn’t derive satisfaction from our pain. But He values the results of that pain when we bring it to Him as part of our cross-bearing. The sacrifices he asks us to make are made with our best in mind. 

The reverses you and I face are not the hand of blind fate; they have purpose and meaning. God has promised that He orders our steps and that everything works together for our good. But we so often focus on the immediate, what feels good now. Jesus wants our focus to be like His in the long term. He wants us to say with Him, “I do only those things which please the Father.” He wants us to follow faithfully until the end.

The reward is eternal life. Seventy or eighty years, or even a hundred, here on earth seems like a long time because our minds can’t grasp the concept of something that never ends. But those brief years are just preparation for eternal life and eternal glory in the presence of God the Father. No more sorrow, no more pain, no more broken relationships, no more sickness. That is the payoff for following the Lord.

Have you counted the cost of being his disciple? Have you given up your identity and accepted the identity Jesus has for you? Have you laid down your plans and goals for the ones he has for you? Have you found the joy of a life fully surrendered to Jesus?

Have you taken up the cross of death to self? Do you continue to carry it, or have you laid it down somewhere along the way? Have you given up the acclaim and approval of men to gain that greater glory Christ offers? Are you dying to self daily so Christ can live his life through you? Is that life being reproduced in others?

Finally, are you following up on the commitments you’ve made? You started well; are you still in the race, or have you dropped out? Do you understand that the cost of discipleship is more than offset by the eternal rewards?

At the end of life, will you hear those words of commendation from the Father, “Well done, good and faithful disciple, enter into the joy of the Lord?” Or will you hear the opposite, “Depart from me, you who work iniquity; I never knew you.” Today, you can still choose.