The Cost of Following Jesus ---Luke 14: 25-35
We live in an era where Christianity has been simplified to a form of ‘easy believism’. There is the option of having Jesus as your Saviour without Him being your Lord. But this was not what Jesus taught. The call to being a Christian is the call to discipleship. For the meaning of ‘disciple’ see Acts 11: 26. A disciple is a follower – it involved a physical act as well as a commitment of mind and heart.
We will see four essential aspects to the cost of following Jesus, being his disciple which is essentially being a Christian:
1. Committing to Christ, Luke 14: 25-26
2. Carrying the Cross, Luke 14: 26, 27
3. Counting the Cost, Luke 14: 28-34
4. Conserving the Consistency, Luke 14: 34, 35
1: Committing to
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4: Conserving the Consistency (Luke 14: 34-35)
34 “Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? 35 It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Jesus adds another consideration in following Him – persevering and maintaining a consistent walk in following Him. The illustration of salt is used. Salt in those times was valuable and had various important uses – flavouring, preserving being the most significant. Often the salt used in ancient times was impure. Jesus warns about being like impure salt which leeches its salt and want remains is absolutely useless and tasteless. It is more of a hindrance than a help. We need the preserving power of the Holy Spirit to help propel us at the required regular pace needed for the journey of discipleship. Our eyes need to be continually fixed on Jesus as we take our burden of the cross and follow Him EVERY SINGLE DAY THAT LORD HAS GIVEN TO US AS A GIFT AS WE ALL ARE LUCKY TO BE ALIVE AND WE HAVE A CHANCE TO PRAISE AND WORSHIP
continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” (Acts 6:2-3) Therefore, the disciples
To be a true disciple of Jesus one must not disown or deny Jesus but
Without that, we are stumbling around using our own wisdom to solve the problems that are devoid of Christ. Christ is THE way, THE truth, THE life…there is no other answer. We must not give out imperatives without the indicative. We must not use worldly wisdom. We must not be foolishly believing “every man’s way is right in his own eyes.” That is devoid of wisdom, which is devoid of Christ, which is godlessness and therein lies no answers but only instating idols. 1 Peter 1:3-4 “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful
Mk 8:34-8 Jesus tells his disciples that the cost of Discipleship means to deny self, to take up cross and to follow him. This here is the true Nature of Discipleship because is the base of Discipleship. You have to go through these challenges if you want to be a true Disciple of God.
The last way that Jesus demonstrated His discipleship was in the way he took care of people’s spiritual needs. The first time we see this is in Mark 1:21-28. In these verses Jesus is i...
“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” So begins Matthew chapter 6, the biblical book containing the story of Jesus Christ’s temptation. After his baptism Jesus is said to be led by the Holy Spirit into the wild, for forty days and forty nights of spiritual meditation, in preparation for his ministry. He fasted for the entirety of this time, fed only through prayer communication with the heavens. After this time had passed he was faced by the devil who, noticing his emaciated state, demanded that “If thou shall be the son of God, command that these stone be made bread.” But Jesus denied this request, stating that “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God.” Frustrated
Not our own personal gain or our own popularity, but to be humbled and shine as the salt and light of the Earth. In the new testament book of Matthew, in chapter 5, Jesus is teaching to his disciples on a mountainside. He has already began to decribe what a life of following Chirst entails. In verses 13-16:
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In every book the main character is faced with hardships. Some have a tragic ending whiles others have a happier more subtle ending. In both The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Crucible by Arthur Miller this is evident. The downfall and ending of both characters are different but they share the same fate due to their actions and decisions. Their tragic endings are results of their sins, pride and guilt. The tragic downfall of Dimmesdale, from The Scarlet Letter and John Proctor from The Crucible are very similar yet different in the way it led up to their death. Dimmesdale and Proctor both commit adultery and from then on everything goes down hill.
Danielle’s Hard Life in Girl Who Loved Her Horses Life often has unexpected ways of throwing tough challenges our way, and testing our limits. For Danielle, a character introduced in Drew Hayden Taylor’s play Girl Who Loved Her Horses, it’s been years since her life has felt easy. By delving deeper into her life, we can gain an understanding of her home situation, family issues, and her mother’s behaviours and how they contribute to her hard life. From the moment Danielle is introduced, it is clear that this soft-spoken girl is afraid of entering her own home. In scene four of this play, Danielle returns home from school and finds herself standing in front of her house mustering up enough courage to finally enter, and when she does, she heads
Discipleship is the process of making disciples; students or followers of someone (Oxford Dictionaries, 2016). Although discipleship existed long before Jesus, the disciple-making process as expressed by Jesus is the most impactful example for Christianity. The following is an analysis of discipleship as it was applied to Jesus’ ministry, Jesus’ discipleship model in light of modern leadership theories, and a discussion of what can be gleaned from Jesus’ discipleship model.
Whenever one thinks of Christianity and the Christian church, one cannot avoid Jesus Christ. This is understandable because, for without Jesus, Christianity would not exist; Christianity is based on Jesus. Jesus has become so well associated with Christianity that it is assumed and widely accepted that Jesus was a Christian. Followers of Christianity often use the reference “being Christ-like” as a model for ideal human behavior (meaning to use the life of Jesus as a blueprint).
When Jesus called His disciples, His invitation was simple. He invited them to follow Him. The same is true today. In Matthew 28, Jesus gave His last charge to His disciples, and the charge was simple. He called his followers to go and make disciples. Much effort has been placed by Christians to fulfill this charge, commonly referred to as the Great Commission. Jesus chose to fulfill the implementation of the New Covenant through 12 men who He called, appointed, and commissioned, and he only had a few short years to prepare them for the task (Willson, 1990). His methods were unconventional and were revolutionary for that time. His disciples were to be trained extensively by Jesus, living with Him for three years prior to His ascension. He taught about servant leadership and its meaning for both the leader and follower Matt. 20:25-28). From the beginning, Jesus put in place a careful plan, and an examination of His actions in the Gospels showed that Jesus left behind the pattern to be replicated. His methods, which included the incorporation of three different levels of discipleship, included His interaction with Peter, His closest three (Peter, James, and John), and finally the group of 12. This paper identified and analyzed the three levels of discipleship Jesus modeled, these discipleship methods were then measured against modern leadership theories, and Jesus’s level of involvement and interaction with his disciples were critiqued in light of these modern theories in an effort to determine the effectiveness of this approach.
...Today as a Christ follower, we will never be satisfied if our life is not bearing lasting fruit because we are not fulfilling the purpose for which we were “grafted “into the Vine. Let’s examine the “fruit” of our lives. Is it the kind of fruit that reveals the character of Christ? Let’s not settle for fruitless Christianity. God will do the work of making us fruitful – we must only abide, surrendering our lives to His mission of making disciples of all nations through us. The whole notion of mission is to stretch out to work the work of evangelism not through hierarchy, sovereignty, rather through humbleness, hospitality, affection love for the others. That is what Jesus who portrayed as the one who we do not deserve to untie His sandals straps in the first Chapter of John, later become feet washer, intimate with humanity leaving His equality with God.
A disciple must be prepared to suffer, be rejected and go to prison. Jesus taught us the rewards received by believers, Mk10v1-12 the disciples have the privilege of becoming a child of God, depending on god and not on materials by doing this they will receive the gift of eternal life. The true nature of discipleship is having faith in God, being his friend; companion and follower also obey the commandment. To get the reward first you have to be prepare to receive the cost with believe and total faith in God. Mark is using the disciple's mistakes as a learning tool to show the Christians in Rome what to do, because they are his main audience these are the people he is writing for and showing them what a disciple does and what it consists of.