Do you know what the cost of being a disciple of Jesus Christ is? Did you think about what you were giving up
when you gave up your life to follow His path?
The definition of a disciple is someone who worships, follows, serves
and obeys Jesus, someone that doesn’t merely believe in Him but lives a life in
light of that belief. You may be sitting
there thinking to yourself “well that is me” but I am asking you to take a look
at your life and examine yourself to see if you are a true disciple of Jesus
Christ. Being a disciple does not mean
that you accept Jesus into your heart and then continue on living the same way. No, being a disciple of Jesus Christ means DYING to your old life and living your new
life in complete devotion, surrender and reverence of the one who gave His life
for you. Being a disciple means that you
don’t give up on Jesus when things get hard and start to hurt or when people
start to persecute you for your faith in Him. Being a disciple of Jesus Christ means that no matter what your
circumstances you are not allowed to QUIT.
For some of you this idea may be a difficult pill to swallow and this
is the reason why. Many people only
preach “accept Jesus into your heart and you will go to heaven.” Because of this reason some people do not
understand what a life of true discipleship is. People preach about the decision that is made, the decision being to
accept Jesus as Lord over your life, but what they forget to mention is that what
Jesus is asking for is complete devotion
to Him no matter what this life throws your way. The cost of being a disciple of Jesus Christ
is this-the world and the people in it will hate you, persecute you,
tear you down, spit all over you and you might die. If that doesn’t sound
like something you signed up for, then my guess is that you misunderstood the
decision you made.
Luke 14:25-27-“Large crowds
were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his
father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters-yes even his
own life-he cannot be my disciple. And
anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”
What Jesus is saying here is that to be devoted to Him there must be NO ONE before Him in our lives and that
includes our parents, significant others, children, siblings and even
ourselves. Meaning if we put anyone
above Jesus in our lives we are not truly a disciple of Him. Jesus is calling us to make Him our FIRST position of priority. What Jesus is not saying is that we are to
hate our parents and family, He is saying that all other concerns of this life
take SECOND place to our commitment
to Him. Our relationship with Him is to
be in a completely different category than any other relationship we have on
this earth. With that being said many
people in our lives are not going to understand that. This set us up to receive a lot of pressure
from others to get you to quit your commitment and devotion to Him, which
leaves you with a decision to make. Who
would you choose over Jesus? What have
you chosen over Jesus? If the answer to
either of these questions is someone or something other than Jesus Christ, it
may be time to re-evaluate your priorities and the commitments you’ve made.
Do you know what death by crucifixion entails? It is the most humiliating death anyone could
ever experience. Carrying the cross was
literally a dead man walking sentence. After being flogged, spat at, and stoned
you carried it to your place of crucifixion, where you were stripped of all
dignity, nailed to a cross until you died…and it could be days, days where you
hung in pain, in feces, urine, blood, and sweat. Just in case you don’t know where I am going
with this let me just say it…this is the
type of cross that Jesus is calling you to carry daily. This seems a lot more different than accept
Jesus into your heart and you will get to heaven, doesn’t it? Jesus is calling us to take part in the
sufferings that He endured. To be His
disciple is to be like Him.
Jesus is looking for disciples that will give up EVERYTHING to follow Him. He
is not looking for Christian consumers that take only what they want from the
gospel. Consumers are looking for the
path of least resistance and they will preach a false gospel to the world. Producers will stop at nothing to spread the
true gospel of Jesus Christ. They will
give everything they have; even their life if that means a new life comes to
know Christ. Being a disciple of Jesus Christ means being disciplined, Jesus is
looking for His followers to produce fruit for His kingdom no matter what the
cost. Jesus Christ gave His life for
you, so my question is are you a consumer or a producer?
