Christ Calls to Discipleship
Tom Shrader works through Luke 9:18-26, beginning with Peter's confession that Jesus is the Christ and moving to Jesus' announcement that He must suffer, be rejected, and be raised. He draws on C.S. Lewis and Reformed theology to establish that saving faith is entirely a work of God, not human decision alone. The heart of the teaching unpacks the three demands of discipleship — denying oneself, taking up the cross daily, and following Christ in obedience — and challenges listeners to evaluate their lives not by worldly success but by these standards, warning that clinging to one's own life ultimately means losing it.
“Christianity first is a belief. Christianity first is doctrine. Christianity first and foremost is what we believe. Now, what we believe must affect how we behave.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: A Study Of The Life Of Jesus Christ (2005)
Recorded: 2005 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 45 min
Themes: discipleship, self-denial, following jesus, suffering, identity of jesus, cross, commitment, sacrifice, new believer, nominal christian, struggling with commitment, young adult, questioning faith, seeker, spiritually complacent, feeling lost
Scripture: Luke 9:18-26, Matthew 16:13-23, John 6:15, Romans 12:1, Ephesians 2:1-3, Psalm 119:105, James 1:22
Theological Themes: soteriology, saving faith, monergism, regeneration, christology, lordship salvation, sanctification, confession of christ
Full Transcript
Who Do You Say That I Am?
We are picking up exactly where we left off in Luke chapter 9. The incident we are going to look at today is also recorded by Matthew, Mark, and John. We saw the feeding of the 5,000, the only miracle recorded by all four Gospel writers. Jesus performs this miracle at what we have described as the apex of His earthly ministry. From this point on, numerically speaking, the crowds begin to dwindle, and even some who have been called disciples or followers will begin to drift away — and you are going to get a sense of why that is this morning.
Here is what we looked at last week. Luke chapter 9, verse 18: "Now it happened that as He was praying alone, the disciples were with Him, and He asked them, 'Who do the crowds say that I am?'" What do the polls say? When you are out there with the people, what do they say? They answered, "Some think you are John the Baptist, and others say you are Elijah, and others that you are one of the prophets of old that is risen." That is what the crowds say. Notably absent from that list is Messiah.
John's Gospel tells us that after the feeding of the 5,000, the crowds came to take Jesus, but He vanished from them because He knew they wanted to make Him king. What they wanted was a Messiah on their own terms — an economic, political, military Messiah who would deliver them from the hardship and repressive nature of Roman government. That is what they were looking for.
Then He turns the question around. Verse 20, read with the emphasis the language and structure intend, says this: "But who do *you* say that I am?" The emphasis is on the *you*. What is your answer to that question? How do you respond? And so we bring that question immediately forward to everyone listening right now — who do you say Jesus is?
What the World Says
Our answers, in many ways, are not so different from some of those recorded here in Luke's Gospel. Just yesterday, out of curiosity, I typed "Who is Jesus?" into Google. I found a website with a section called Street Talk — people standing on the street being asked that very question. The answers were exactly what you would expect. One person said He was just a man. Another said He was quite a radical, and that word came up again and again, especially among younger people. He was a contrarian, not politically easy, not simply doing what was comfortable. One man said he thought Jesus was a great prophet of God, like Muhammad. Perhaps the most striking answer came from a young woman who said, "I am sure He had a bad side to Him. He can't have been nice all the time. No one is nice all the time."
Now, if you want to know who Jesus is, you do not need a microphone and a busy street corner. And yet it is imperative that you answer this question — and imperative that you get it right. What is at stake is your very soul, your life, where you will spend eternity, and the quality of life you have right here. It is not a trivial question.
If you want to understand how to answer it correctly, you have to come to this book. It does not matter what the talk show hosts say. It does not matter what your mother or father or sister or brother says. What does Jesus tell us of Himself, as recorded in Scripture? Who does He say that He is?
Peter's Answer and the Three Options
Peter speaks up and answers for the group: "You are the Christ of God." Through the years, different authors have essentially argued that there are only three possible responses to the question of who Jesus is. You can say He is a liar. You can say He is a lunatic. Or you can say He is Lord.
Those three options are grounded in what Jesus claims about Himself, because Jesus does not keep Himself a secret. It is right there in the text. He is God come in the flesh. "Before Abraham was, I am." "I came to save my people from their sin." "I did not come to be served, I came to serve." "If you believe in Me, you will have eternal life. If you do not, you will not." It is very clear who Jesus claims to be.
Once that claim is understood, only three responses are available. Either He is lying — deliberately deceiving us, knowing full well He is not God, the way you or I would know we are not God, and simply pulling an elaborate deception that happened to catch on in a rather significant way. Or He is out of His mind — He genuinely believes He is God, but He is not. C.S. Lewis had exactly this in mind when he worked through the logic, and he added an important observation about those who call Jesus a good man or a great moral teacher.
Perhaps that is where you are sitting today. It is something like the Thomas Jefferson view: Jesus was a remarkable person, worth learning from, a great moral example — but He did not die for anyone, and He was not God. Just a good man.
Peter's Confession and the Grace of God
C.S. Lewis writes, "I'm trying here to prevent anyone from saying the foolish thing that people often say about Him. I'm ready to accept Jesus as a good moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God. That is one thing we must not say. A man who is merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a good moral teacher. He'd either be a lunatic on the level with a man who says he's a poached egg, or else he'd be a devil of hell. You make your choice. Either this man was and is the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool. You can spit at him and kill him as a demon, or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with the patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He didn't intend to."
So who do you think He is? Here is Peter's answer: "You are the Christ." Matthew records a slightly more extended answer: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Christ is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew term Messiah. You are the one we have been waiting for, the one we have anticipated — the Deliverer, the Prophet, the Savior, the Anointed One. The phrase "Son of the living God" adds to that confession that He is a real God — not mythology, but a real God who created the earth and spoke it into existence.
We have to turn to Matthew's Gospel for what Jesus says next in response to Peter. Jesus says, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven." Peter had been the recipient of God's grace. It was not the teaching, the preaching, or even the miracles that produced his faith. Plenty of people heard the teaching, saw the miracles, and heard the preaching, and still did not believe.
Why did Peter believe when others did not? Because God opened Peter's eyes and passed over the others. Jesus Himself said, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him." If you took communion and you are truly converted, if you are truly a follower of Christ, then that is not based on anything you have done — it is entirely, utterly, completely a work of God. God, before the foundations of the earth, decided that He would save you, for His good purpose.
Why you and not someone else? That question cannot be fully answered. But if you are a follower of Christ, it is because, just as Peter's eyes were opened, your eyes were opened at a point in time. One author writes, "God the Father had opened Peter's eyes to the full significance of these claims and revealed to Peter who Jesus really was. Peter's personal faith was made possible by a divinely regenerated heart."
The Doctrine of Grace and Its Practical Weight
If you are a follower of Christ, it is utterly a work of God in your life. That is heavy doctrine, and it carries huge practical ramification — because your experience does not feel that way. Peter himself would not have described it in those terms. He would have said, "Here is what happened: I saw these miracles, I was walking with Him, we were spending time together, and then at a certain point — suddenly — I believed. I just chose to believe."
That would be many people's testimony as well. You walked into a service one day, someone was teaching, and as they taught it was as though they were speaking to you and you alone. You went home, weighed the options, and made a decision for Christ. But that is not really the question. The question is: why did you believe? Why did you believe when someone else sitting right next to you heard the very same thing and did not?
There is a version of this that gets it wrong. A pastor once said, "Regarding your salvation, God has voted yes, the devil has voted no, and you will cast the deciding ballot." That is not true. There will ultimately be a decision for Christ, but that decision — that faith — is itself a gift. Scripture says we are saved by grace through faith, and that faith is not something we manufactured. That is a magnificent truth.
Jesus Foretells His Suffering, Death, and Resurrection
From there, Jesus begins to speak to His disciples about pain, suffering, and the future — both His and theirs. Luke 9, verse 21 says, "He strictly charged and commanded them to tell this to no one." Then in verse 22: "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, the scribes, and be killed, and on the third day rise."
If you are taking notes, a few words in that verse deserve special attention. Circle the word "must" — it speaks of necessity. Circle "be rejected." Underline "by." Circle "be killed" and "be raised." The word "must" is really important here. It is a declaration of necessity: this has to take place.
"The Son of Man" was Jesus' favorite autobiographical description of Himself, and He says the Son of Man must suffer. It is not optional. We understand through the whole sweep of Scripture that this is why He came — Jesus came to save His people from their sin. If He is going to save us from our sin, then He must suffer.
At this point, Jesus spares the disciples the details. He does not fill in every blank or tell them exactly what is going to happen — only the general terms. He says the Son of Man must suffer many things. We know what those things are now, looking back. And as we contemplate and think about those specifics, we see more and more clearly who Jesus was and what He endured. Whether or not you have seen the film The Passion of the Christ, those details are worth dwelling on. It is a healthy thing to contemplate what He specifically went through on our behalf.
The Cost of Following Christ
Salvation is free in the sense that Jesus died in our place. On the cross, Jesus was treated as though He was guilty of sin — your sin and my sin and all of those who would ever believe. We have come in repentance and faith. And yet, as Romans 12:1 tells us, He calls us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. What Jesus gives us in Luke chapter 9, verse 23 is what it means to be a follower of Christ — what we might call a disciple, or discipleship.
The Suffering Messiah
Though the film *The Passion of the Christ* was graphic, for me the violence had context. It made sense, and I found it assisted me rather than being a stumbling block. I'm sure they didn't get all the nuances right, but it helped me understand the enormous physical price that Jesus paid — and that was only a fraction of the spiritual price that was paid.
Jesus must suffer. To us, reading through this, we might miss the weight of it, but to the original listeners it would have been startling. He is going to be rejected by three specific groups: the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes. The elders were lay people, usually from privileged families in Jerusalem. The chief priests were part of the priestly families and included the high priests. The scribes were the ordained, trained theologians responsible for the teaching, study, interpretation, transmission, and copying of the law.
These are the very people who were supposed to protect them. These are the people who waited each and every day for the Messiah, who were in charge of the spiritual well-being of the people. And Jesus said they are the very ones who are going to reject Him — and that He is going to be killed, suffer an agonizing and horrific death on the cross, and be raised again.
Peter's Protest and the Centrality of the Cross
This is the apex of Jesus' ministry, and you can see here why it starts to dwindle. He is now talking about what it truly means to be a follower of Christ and who He is. It is devastating — and I say this in purely human terms. At this point, these men have about two years invested in following Him. They have sold everything and done everything to follow Him. They have become totally dependent upon Him. He is providing the food, providing the means to pay taxes. And this simply does not connect with what they expected.
Not recorded by Luke but by Matthew, when Peter heard this he said, "God forbid it, Lord, this shall never happen to You." Jesus rebukes him and says, "Get behind me, Satan, you are a stumbling block." That word — stumbling block — was originally used of an animal trap, or bait in a trap. It ultimately symbolizes captivity or destruction. The point is that Satan was using Peter at that moment to set a trap for Jesus, to deter Him from the mission God had sent Him to fulfill.
If you want to take the cross out of the Christian faith, you do not have Christianity at all. Jesus Christ is absolutely central — He is the Christian faith. When we study Christ, we study two aspects: the person of Christ, who He is, and the work of Christ, what He did. And what He did was die on the cross, so that you and I might have eternal life.
Belief Before Behavior
So many people want to race ahead and say, "Well, I do this, and I do this, and I do this." Or you will hear people — usually, by the way, not Christians — look at someone's behavior and say, "Well, that's not very Christian." But Christianity is first a belief. Christianity is first doctrine. Christianity first and foremost is what we believe. Now, what we believe must affect how we behave — and that point is coming in a moment. But if you want Christ and Christianity without the cross, you are missing it entirely.
Within Christianity itself, the powerful lesson Jesus teaches here is that there is suffering. The slave is not greater than the master. Just as the master suffered, so will the slave. Peter, well-motivated as he was, is saying in this moment, "No, that should never be. I have a whole different plan. I see salvation taking place in an entirely different way." And Jesus is saying, "Listen, Peter — it is My way or it is nothing at all."
Narrow-Minded About the Right Things
That is a pretty important truth. Someone gave me a button the other day that simply says, "I'm narrow-minded." I'm not sure what they were trying to say, but I took it as a compliment. I think there are certain things about which we should be very narrow-minded, and this would be one of them.
I am open-minded about a lot of things, but I actually appreciate narrow-minded people in the right contexts. If I am flying into San Francisco, I want a narrow-minded pilot — a man who is committed to having the wheels down when landing, picking the runway assigned to him, coming in at the correct altitude, setting it down slowly, going by the book, and not deviating from policy. That is the kind of pilot I want. And it is the same here. When we are talking about Christ, there is a right answer and a wrong answer, and we know the right answer because we have the Scripture to tell us what that right answer is.
The Cost of Following Christ
"If anyone would come after me" — there in verse 23 — you want to be a follower of Christ? One: let him deny himself. Two: take up his cross daily. And three: follow me, or obey me. If you want to be a follower of Christ, that is what it is going to cost you.
He leaves out the specifics, by the way, and it is frustrating that He does, but it is good that He does. We love the specifics. We would love to be able to say, "I'm a follower of Christ — how do I know? I do this, this, this, this, this. Five things He says, and I've done them all." He doesn't say, "Do this, do this, do this." He says, "Be this."
Deny yourself. What does that mean? Take up your cross. All right, I want to do that. But notice: daily. All of the verbs are in the present continuous. In other words, keep on denying yourself. Keep on taking up your cross. Keep on following Me. This isn't something you do one time, or do for a season in life.
It's not something where you say, "I'm just a student, I made this profession of faith, and I want to get serious about this, but I've got lots of time for the church stuff — I've got real living to do." A couple of things in response to that. Number one, you don't know how long you have. Number two, this is real living.
Losing Your Life to Save It
You want to have real life? That's what He says. Look at verse 24: "Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it." That is another way of saying what He said in verse 23. If you want to save your life — if you want to hold on to it, hoard it, grab it, and do your thing, your way, your timing, you, you, you, you — you are going to lose life. But if you deny yourself and take up your cross and follow Him, you will have life.
Studying the Passage
When I read this, I just come in and read it, and that would be the way I'd approach a passage like this. I'm just going to come in, read it, get a notepad, and start writing. Here's what I see — boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
When I look at verse 23, it looks to me to be pretty expensive, pretty demanding, pretty relentless, and pretty all-encompassing of my life. And indeed it is. If you want to know what it means to live the Christian life, what it means to be a follower of Christ, and you want to know how you're doing, you just lay your life right here against these three things mentioned in Luke chapter 9, verse 23: discipleship.
In preparing for this, once I make my observations and try to study it and break it out, I'll go and see what others say about the text. And as you look back, it is fairly discouraging to read men like Bonhoeffer, Jim Boyce, and A. W. Tozer, because they look around and here is their conclusion: either the church doesn't understand what it means to follow Christ, or there aren't many Christians in the church, because we don't see a lot of this behavior.
What the Theologians Say
Here is what Boyce writes — and he wrote this in 1983, so a while ago: "There is a fatal defect in the life of Christ's church in the 20th century, a lack of true discipleship. Discipleship means forsaking everything to follow Christ."
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was martyred by the Nazis, wrote this: "Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ living and incarnate."
A. W. Tozer writes this: "The whole transaction of religious conversion has been made mechanical and spiritless. Faith may now be exercised without a jar to the moral life, without embarrassment to the Adamic ego. Christ may be received without creating any special love for Him in the soul of the receiver. The man is saved, but he is not hungry or thirsty for God."
The Relentless Demand of Discipleship
When I read through what Jesus says about what it means to be a Christian, I have a sense where I go, I don't know if I'll ever measure up. He's talking about denying yourself — how much do I deny myself? What does it mean to take up my cross? What does that look like daily? Follow Him, obey Him, and never stop — present, continuous, here it goes. It is relentless in its nature. That is what it means to be a follower of Christ.
Somebody the other day asked me what they thought was the difference between my teaching now and my teaching fifteen years ago. My sense is that I've mellowed a lot — I think I'm a lot softer. You don't look like you're buying this, but I really do think I am. You ought to hear some of that old material.
But one of the things I would do back then, more out of frustration than anything — and I even feel it now — is I see people who say they're Christians, and then I talk to them and there is no life change at all. Nothing is changing, and yet they're going and listening to sermons, quoting pastors, watching what is supposed to be Christian television, and they are never hearing what we're talking about here.
Rather than deny yourself, the message is feed yourself — get more, God's got more for you, He wants to give you more. Don't just pray for a Volkswagen, pray for a Mercedes. Why are you living down there? God's got this big thing for you. And then I'll watch a man on television just preach along, talking about absolutely nothing that I understand to have anything to do with what it means to follow Christ.
Denying Yourself
Nobody ever gives you the fine print. You walk out thinking, "I want that — put me down for yes," and then the hardship comes, the difficulty comes, the storms come, the house blows over, the faith goes away. You become one of those people who say, "I tried Jesus for 30 days and it didn't work," as if it were a toothpaste. What happened is you bought into something and were sold a bill of goods — it's different from the real thing. It's a knockoff. That's what it is.
Here is what Christianity actually is: denying yourself, taking up your cross daily, and following Him. We have about fifteen minutes, so let's look at those three things. Number one: denying yourself.
When most people think of denying themselves, they think of Lent — forty days without candy, stopping smoking, not drinking, giving up movies. That is not what is intended here. The idea of denying yourself means to completely disown or utterly separate oneself from something or someone. That is exactly the word used to describe Peter when he denied Christ — to disavow, "I don't know who he is."
You know him, Peter. I can hear it in your voice. I don't know who he is. A little servant girl comes up to him, and on the third charge he swears at her: "I don't know who he is. I've never seen that man." There is an incredible moment recorded by one of the Gospel writers: Peter's eyes met Jesus' eyes at that moment, and he wept — not filled with despair, but with guilt, and ultimately forgiven.
To deny yourself means to disavow those natural instincts of immediate gratification and self-exaltation. Paul writes in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 1: "You were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of the world, following the prince of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind. We were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind."
The Sin Nature and Counterculture Faith
If you want to see that sin nature in its pure, unmasked, unadulterated reality, walk right out that door, go up that side of the building, and stop at the eighteen-month-olds. Nobody has taught them anything — they are simply doing what comes naturally. Mine. Me. What about me? Give it to me. Where does that come from? It comes from the sin nature.
To deny yourself means suddenly taking your own agenda and setting it aside — your mindset and setting it aside. That is exactly what Jesus meant when He spoke to Peter. Peter said, "You're not going to do this," and Jesus replied, "Get behind me, Satan. You are more interested in the things of man than the things of God. You're more interested in man's ways than God's ways."
One of the things learned over the years about the Christian faith is that at its core, it is counterculture. That is what Jesus means. If what you want to do is save your life, you are going to lose it. But if you are willing to lose your life, you will achieve what you want — which is to save it. If you and I are going to be followers of Christ, we have to deny ourselves. We have to look at the world around us and see it, and see ourselves, as God sees it.
Stewardship: Ownership Versus Possession
As you look at your life and inventory it, you begin to have a different view of your relationship to the material world. You see who you are, your stuff, your things, differently. You come to understand a principle that is really important and that will transform your life — the principle of stewardship.
Although God has transferred possession of time, energy, effort, and money to you, He has not transferred ownership. So your mission and mine — let's take money as an example — is not to ask, "How much money should I give?" That question comes up all the time. Here is the actual question: How much of God's money should you keep? What does God want you to do with this money? What does God want you to do with this day?
Consider those of you who are here as volunteers, not on staff. You work five days a week, sometimes more. Saturday is not really a relaxed day — that is when you get the mowing done, get to the home improvement store, fix everything else on the to-do list. And now it is Sunday, your one day, and here you are early in the morning taking care of kids and then heavily invested in this service. I assume this is not because you are trying to earn God's approval, but because you understand that He is the owner, though you are the possessor, of your time. The question becomes: How does He want me to spend this time? How does He want me to spend this money? How does He want me to expend this energy?
That thinking extends even into vacation. There is a love of vacation — next year's is already planned and completed just this week. There used to be a desire to get away simply to escape. Now it is seen as something desperately necessary — to get away, to refresh, to come back and be able to serve.
Denying Yourself and Taking Up Your Cross
You deny yourself. And here is the second thing: when you take up your cross, when I begin to take up the cross, what I want to understand is what does that mean? A lot of us will say, well, she is my cross to bear. He is my cross to bear. That boss is my cross to bear. Those parents are my cross to bear. Those in-laws, the neighbors, the dog across the water — my cross to bear. It may be a handicap, an infirmity, a sickness.
The cross stood for a picture of shame and humiliation and suffering. On the cross, we are exposed. We are humbled. Our pride is offended. Our ego is hopefully broken, and our evil is revealed. That is what it means to begin to take up your cross. Where the world would say avoid everything — avoid a hurt, avoid the pain — the cross says no, there is going to be suffering, there is going to be hardship.
Here is what Peter says: "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing." Consider it all joy. Why? Because that is what it means to be a cross bearer.
Jim Boyce uses five words here. He says the cross is universal — by that he means we all must bear the cross who are Christians. It is perpetual — take up your cross daily, it is ongoing. It is intentional — you take up your cross, it is a deliberate choice you make. It is painful. And it is also mortal in that it is a death to our self-interest.
Following Jesus Means Obeying Him
You see the third step there? Follow me. Said another way: obey me. Jesus says it this way: "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." Psalm 119 says, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. My heart is set on keeping your decrees to the very end." That is what it means to be a follower of Christ — that I obey. If Jesus says do it, if the Bible teaches it and says do it, I do it. If it says avoid it, I avoid it. In the other areas where it does not speak with specificity, I use my brain, I use my friends, I think.
The Unbreakable Law of Losing and Saving Your Life
So here you go. Who do you say Jesus is? If your answer is that He is the Christ, the Son of God, God come in the flesh so that we might have eternal life, then He says to you: understand this — I have to go suffer. We already have that figured out. Then He says deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.
And if you want to save your life, you will lose it. That is, if you cling to it, hoard it, hold on to it — if you are trying to preserve your self-interest and your ways — you will lose it. By the way, this is an unbreakable law He has given us. It is like gravity. If you try to hold on to your life, you are going to lose it. If you let go of it and say, not my way but Your will be done, you are going to save your life.
Then He asks what is, to me, a very important question: "What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?" It is the picture of a winner.
The Parable of the Rich Fool
In another place, Jesus uses a parable along the same lines. He says there was a wealthy man who had a windfall. He was already making money, but then there was this bonus that exceeded all expectation. Jesus says in the parable that the man goes and says to himself — and that is when you know you are in trouble. When you are your own counselor, you have issues. He says to himself, "What shall I do?" And his answer is, "I will build bigger barns. I will store my grain. I will say to myself, take care, be merry." And Jesus said: you are a fool. Because this very night your life, your soul, is demanded of you. What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?
What Profits a Man?
Let us put it in terms we can get our arms around. What does it profit you to be above the fold on the business section of the newspaper, highlighted as this incredible entrepreneur, if you lose your soul? What good is it to be the center of attention on SportsCenter every night — the guy, the highlight, the one they just show out in the field without even showing the other guys? What good is it if you are the best cook, the best homemaker, the best golfer?
And this is really important: I am not saying those things are not important. They really are. It is important for you to be as good as you can be at what God has called you to be. But what He is saying is that they are not the most important thing. The most important thing in your life is not how you measure up by man's economy and man's evaluation. The most important thing in your life is how you are doing by God's evaluation.
Evaluating What Matters
I received an email the other day — it was time for us to send out an evaluation for the staff. Staff evaluations are always difficult. You look at what someone is doing, and fortunately I do not do many of them. But they are profitable, are they not? We do it with the ministries. We look at the church and keep asking ourselves hard questions. So many people were saying the church is so big they do not know where to plug in. As we sat and talked about that, we asked how we could more effectively minister to those people, and the end result is what you see in the home groups and the assimilation areas. The same thing came up in worship — certain people say this is the expression they respond to, and there is nothing wrong with that.
Evaluating Yourself by God's Standards
Take a look at your life and do a self-evaluation — not by the world's standards, but by God's standards. You may get two very different conclusions. Your boss may be as happy as he can be with you. The home office may be thrilled with you. The Arizona Business Journal may name you entrepreneur of the year, giving you tens across the board. But then you look at the scorecard that matters: deny myself — one. Take up my cross — two. Follow Him — two.
If that is where you are, then when somebody asks, "How's it going?" you should say, "Not so hot. Not very well." They may not understand it. They may look around and say, "I see all this stuff — I'd love to be you. How can you not be happy? Look at what you have." And you can answer them plainly: a man's life does not consist of his possessions.
Let me say it one last time — this is not an anti-material message, but it is anti-materialism. Some of you, God has given so much. It may be in an area of giftedness and talent — maybe you can work with a third grader like nobody else, or it is care ministry, or whatever it is. God has given you that gift, and you will be held responsible for it.
For some of you, it is money and material things. He has given you so much, and you really need to figure out: how much of God's money should I keep? The idea is to present your body as a living sacrifice.
The Question That Reveals Your Heart
So how are you doing? Are you following Him? Are you denying yourself? When you come into that conflict — and it is inevitable — between God's ways and man's ways, which do you pick? Between what you want and what God says you should have, what do you pick? That is a revealer of your heart. It tells you where you are.
So who do you say Jesus is? Hopefully the answer is that He is who He said He was — God come in the flesh to die so that we might have eternal life. You have come to the point where you understand that you are separated from Him by your sin, and there is nothing you can do about it. Everything you try to do is religion. There is nothing you can do to appease His wrath. But you come in repentance and faith.
Savior and Lord Are Inseparable
Now, what does it mean to be a follower of Christ? There are Christians and theologians running around saying you can accept Him and have Him as Savior, but not Lord — that the Lord part will happen eventually, that it is kind of tough, so don't worry about it. No. If He is your Savior, He is your Lord. If He is your Lord, He is your Savior. They are interchangeable in terms of functionality.
Do not be a hearer of the Word — be a doer of the Word. James asks that question over and over again.
The Narrow Way Is a Glorious Way
Notice the crowd thins out. Do you see that? It is really interesting that the crowd thins out here. Why? Because Jesus is talking about what it truly means to be a Christian, and it is a hard, narrow way. But I will tell you this — it is a glorious way to live. It is a magnificent way to live.
You will experience the highs of life in a way you never dreamt possible as you walk with Him. And in those difficult times, you will have a peace that transcends all understanding, because it is not about you. It is about Him.
Closing Prayer
Father, help us see this and let it transform our lives. God, as it changes us individually, change us as a church. We pray that East Valley Bible Church would be a small, large church where people would feel Your love — where they would experience the care of people who shepherd them and watch over them, where they would be able to experience what it means to serve and be used.
God, we pray that we would take this message, this ministry of reconciliation, to a lost and dying world. We pray that You would use our lives, that You would make them significant as we yield to You and obey You. God, we love You and we praise You. In Jesus' name, amen.