Nonnegotiable Terms of Discipleship

The point: None should be baptized but those who can affirm that Christ is the object of their supreme love and loyalty, and who have said no to self-regulation.

Jesus' parables illustrate that Christ is the ultimate treasure, for which a true disciple joyfully sells all they have to possess Him, signifying supreme love and loyalty.

To be a disciple of Christ means that by the Word and the Spirit we've seen in Christ what He describes as the pearl of great price in Matthew 13. The treasure in the field. He says the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man who finds a treasure in the field and for joy thereof he sells all that he has that he might purchase that field and have the treasure. Then he says the kingdom of heaven is like unto a pearl merchant seeking good pearls and he finds one great pearl and he sells all that he has to have the pearl.

17:33 - 18:10 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second term is the willingness to bear one's cross, which in the first century meant choosing a path of shame, humiliation, and suffering. Martin emphasizes that true…

Martin explains that carrying one's cross in first-century Palestine meant going to execution, stripped of dignity, signifying society's ultimate rejection and shame. This helps the audience understand the depth of suffering Christ expects disciples to embrace.

Verse 27 Whosoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. Christ says I own no one as my disciple but that person who is carrying his own cross. Now what would those words have meant to these multitudes who were following our Lord at this time? Well if you with them lived in first century Palestine under Roman rule the concept of carrying your own cross meant one thing.

19:50 - 20:34 Read in full sermon

Driving home: There is that disposition that says if the second person of the Godhead would come to Mary's womb and there take to himself true humanity, true flesh and blood, a human soul and body, and in the mystery of the two nature…

Paul's testimony in Philippians 3, where he counted his religious 'brownie points' as 'dung' for Christ, illustrates the renunciation of anything one might think is meritorious before God.

And surely he means, first of all, the renunciation of anything we have in terms of what we might think is meritorious, that would give us brownie points with God, just as the Apostle Paul said, I had great possessions in the way of religious brownie points, Philippians chapter 3, Hebrew of the Hebrews, a Pharisee of the Pharisees, touching the law blameless, but he says, what things were gained to me? I counted loss for Christ. I regard them all as skubala, that is, dung, refuse, scourings. I count them as worthless that I might have Christ.

32:46 - 33:27 Read in full sermon

Driving home: There is that disposition that says if the second person of the Godhead would come to Mary's womb and there take to himself true humanity, true flesh and blood, a human soul and body, and in the mystery of the two nature…

These parables from Matthew 13 are revisited to show that the joy of finding Christ (the treasure/pearl) leads to the willing liquidation of all other assets, reinforcing the renunciation of all possessions.

And wasn't that the point of those two parables in Matthew 13? When that man, maybe he was a sharecropper following his plow and it hit something in the field and he dug down in and there was the treasure. When for joy of finding that treasure he sold all that he had. That's the language Jesus uses, that he might have the treasure.

34:26 - 34:51 Read in full sermon

The point: At the Lord's Table, renew your commitment to Christ, unclasping your hands from worldly ambitions, relationships, or possessions.

At the Lord's Table, Martin encourages young people to unclasp their hands from ambitions, relationships, or standing in the eyes of others, symbolizing the inner renunciation of self-will and worldly attachments.

As we come to the table, what a wonderful place to renew afresh in the presence of our Savior those commitments of heart that marked us when He drew us to Himself and we were bound to Him as we came in repentance and faith and with the passing of time there has been the erosion of that single-eyed, whole-eyed, whole-hearted, unrivaled affection to Christ. What better place than at this table to have those fountains of single-eyed love opened up afresh as we remember our Lord in His dying love. What better place to take that thing that right now you've begun to wrap your fingers around it. For ...

37:26 - 38:50 Read in full sermon