Nonnegotiable Terms of Discipleship

Introduction: The Mandate to Make Disciples and Its Terms

0:04 May I encourage you to follow with me in your own Bibles as I read two portions of the Word of God. The first, the very familiar words of our Lord at the end of the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew chapter 28, verses 16 through 20.

0:28 But the eleven disciples went into Galilee unto the mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came to them and spoke unto them, saying, All authority has been given unto me in heaven and on earth. Going therefore, make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe.

1:05 All things whatsoever I commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. And then the second passage is found in the Gospel of Luke, Luke chapter 14.

1:24 And the connection between the two may not be evident on the surface, but I trust to demonstrate that there is a very vital connection between the two portions. Luke chapter 14. Now there went with him, that is, with Jesus, great multitudes, and he turned and said unto them, If any man comes unto me, and does not hate his own father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he...

2:08 Cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he have wherewith to complete it, lest perhaps when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all that behold begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. Or what king, as he goes to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and take counsel, whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him that comes against him with twenty thousand, or else, while the others yet a great way off, he sends an ambassador and asks conditions of peace. So therefore, Whosoever he be of you, that renounces not all that he has, he cannot be my disciple. Salt therefore is good, but even if the salt is lost its savor, wherewith shall it be seasoned?

3:30 It is fit neither for the land nor for the dunghill. Men cast it out, he that has ears to hear. Let him hear. And let us now pray that God would give us all ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to us in these portions of the word of God.

3:53 Our Father, we earnestly pray that as we attempt to understand the words that have been read in our hearing, that you would send your Holy Spirit to open the ears of our souls, that we may be such, such as have ears to hear, truly to receive with understanding and with the response of faith and obedience, all that the Lord Jesus will say to us through his own written words. Send your Spirit upon preacher and upon hearer alike, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen. Now in the first passage read in your hearing, Matthew 28, verses 16 to 20, several things are very obvious on the very surface of the text. Our Lord Jesus meets the eleven disciples at the appointed place after his resurrection and before his ascension back to the right hand of the Father. And he underscores several things that he wants them to know prior to his ascension back to his Father. First of all, he points to his superior, supreme authority as the risen Lord.

5:17 He then gives marching orders to his disciples. And then he promises his abiding presence. But in the marching orders, central to those orders is the imperative verb, going therefore, make disciples of the nations, baptizing them, that is not the nations, but those who among the nations are made, disciples. Now how would the disciples to whom our Lord spoke and gave these marching orders, how would they understand his words?

5:56 What would they understand it to mean to make disciples? Well, I think the answer is quite clear, because they had been with the Lord Jesus throughout his earthly ministry when he himself had been making, and baptizing disciples. We read in John 4, when therefore the Lord knew, John 4, 1, that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, parenthesis, although Jesus himself did not baptize but his disciples, he left Judea and departed into Galilee. Jesus himself was the paradigm of what it is to make, to make disciples and then to baptize such as were made disciples. And therefore, when we come to the gospel records and find any record of Jesus seeking to make disciples, it is right for us to read from those passages what the mandate of the church is in the making of disciples now that the Lord has returned to the right hand, of the Father. And in the passage read in your hearing from Luke chapter 14,

7:20 I sought to emphasize by an exaggerated verbal emphasis the fact that three times our Lord Jesus says in this one passage, unless this or that is true, such a one cannot be his disciple. And surely, and surely if anyone knows the terms of true discipleship, our Lord Jesus knows them, the one who said you go and make disciples, not upon terms that you think are reasonable, but upon the terms that the Lord Jesus himself has clearly articulated and as are recorded here in such a passage as Luke chapter 14. Three times, I say, verse 26c, he says, he cannot be my disciple. Verse 27c, cannot be my disciple. And verse 33c, he cannot be my disciple.

8:32 Unless this is true, no discipleship. Unless this is true, no discipleship. Unless this is true, no discipleship. And I, I want us to spend a few moments contemplating this on the occasion of the baptism of our younger sister in order to underscore afresh in her understanding and in the understanding of each of us who claims to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus the non-negotiable terms of discipleship, the meaning of discipleship according to Jesus.

Term 1: Supreme Love and Loyalty Transferred to Christ

9:10 And the first thing we note is that, discipleship means that supreme love and loyalty must be transferred to Christ himself. Supreme love and loyalty must be transferred to Christ himself. Notice the language of verse 26. Our Lord turns and faces the multitudes and says to them, If any man, any woman, any boy, any girl, anyone who is interested in attaching himself or herself to me as a disciple, if anyone comes to me with a view to being my disciple and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. What is our Lord saying? Our Lord is saying that discipleship means the transferal of supreme love and loyalty to himself from every other person that has a claim upon our love and upon our loyalty.

10:34 And this breaks down into two categories. First of all, every attachment of human love and loyalty external to us, and then that attachment of love and loyalty that is internal to us. First of all, every attachment of human love and loyalty that is external to us. He names those deepest ties of natural affection and loyalty.

11:04 Father, mother, wife, children, brothers, and sisters. He goes into the inner circle, where natural affection binds us most securely to other human beings. And with reference to those attachments of love and loyalty, Jesus said, we must hate them. Now does he mean that we must conjure up an attitude of despising them and ill will toward them?

11:33 Of course not. In the parallel passage in Matthew 10 and verse 34, our Lord makes it abundantly clear what he is saying. Matthew 10 and verse 34. Do not think that I am come to send peace on earth.

11:49 I came not to send peace, but a sword. I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's foe shall be those of his own household. He that loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. He that loves son or daughter more, than me is not worthy of me.

12:16 And so what our Lord is saying is that the attachment which he both demands and expects of every disciple is an attachment that causes every other sphere of love and loyalty to pale into a secondary place. And the Bible uses this terminology of differing loves and the lesser loves, being the one that is hated and the greater being the one that is loved. And so the very Jesus who tells us we are to love our enemies is obviously not calling upon us to conjure up this negative, nasty attitude toward these who have the most natural claim upon our love and loyalty. What he is saying is he will brook no rival. Coming to him, there must be this attachment to Christ that is utterly, unquestionably supreme above every other human love and loyalty external to us. This is one of the issues that we seek to press when relatively young men and women such as Andrea apply for baptism and membership.

13:35 We as elders seek to ascertain while not being able to read human hearts. Has this young adult, come to the place where if mother and father stand in the way of their obedience to Christ, they are prepared for this sword that Christ says he himself sends on earth. I am come to cast a sword upon the earth to set a man against his father, the daughter against the mother, the daughter-in-law against the mother-in-law. And while we cannot, as I say, read the heart, we seek to probe this issue.

14:12 Why? Because we have no warrant to baptize any but disciples. And Jesus said, if he does not have the place of supreme love and loyalty, there is no discipleship. What could be plainer?

14:27 If anyone comes to me and hates not father, mother, brother, sister, he cannot be my disciple. Words could not be more plain, more explicit. He will not tolerate any rivalry to the other. He will not tolerate any rivalry to the other.

14:42 He addresses that supreme place of love and loyalty with respect to any love and loyalty external to us. But then notice, he addresses that attachment of love and loyalty that is internal to us. Look at the text. If any man comes to me, hates not his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes, and his own life also.

15:12 And his own life also. And his own life also. That's the attachment of love and loyalty that is internal to us. That is our natural self-love.

15:24 That disposition with which we were conceived and in which we were born and by which the very wheels of our existence are driven. As 2 Corinthians 5.15 says, and that He, Christ, died for all, that they who live should no longer henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him who for their sakes died and rose again. The Apostle assumes that all of us has by nature a supreme love and loyalty internal to us called self.

16:03 That's why again and again in calling people into attachment to Himself, Jesus made as the first requisite if any man will come out of this world, if any man will come out of this world, if any man will come out of this world, if any man will come out of this world, if any man will come after me, let him say no to himself. Let him deny himself. And Jesus says, without this hatred of self, that is, this attachment to Christ in love and loyalty from that which is native and internal to us, that is our self-love, we cannot, we cannot, we cannot, we cannot, we cannot be His disciple. And so all of this talk about being a believer in Christ and being a disciple of Christ and yet not being surrendered to Christ and not loving Christ is sheer nonsense. The Son of God says if in coming to Him there has not been that work of the Spirit of God so revealing the beauty and the loveliness and the desirableness of Christ that you have embraced Him and seen Him He now has this place of supreme attachment of love and loyalty beyond all attachments external to you and beyond that attachment of love and loyalty that is internal to you He says you cannot be His disciple.

17:33 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.

18:10 Christ is the treasure. Christ is the pearl. And in true discipleship He takes that place in the human heart and without having taken that place He does not own us as His disciples. He cannot be my disciple.

18:32 Therefore none should be baptized but those who can say yes by the grace of God Christ is now the object of my supreme love and loyalty. Every attachment of human love external to me is expendable but Christ is not expendable. And that attachment of love and loyalty that is internal to me is expendable as well. And I have said no to myself to the regulating and the disposing and to the living out of my own life according to my own desires and my own thoughts and my own perspectives and I am now prepared by the grace of God to have Christ Himself as my life. So we learn first of all that discipleship means that supreme love and loyalty must be transferred to Christ. Secondly discipleship means that we must choose the way of rejection and suffering in fellowship with Christ. Discipleship means that we must choose the way of rejection and suffering in fellowship with Christ.

Term 2: Choosing the Way of Rejection and Suffering with Christ

19:50 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.

20:35 You had seen men go out to a place of execution who were being disposed of in shame in humiliation stripped of every last vestige of human dignity. It was societies getting rid of its awful. It was society saying you're worth no respect no honor. You are worthy of shame and humiliation and Christ says if you would be my disciple you must voluntarily consciously take up your own cross and what he has done he is saying is that we must choose the way of rejection and suffering in fellowship with Christ. Christ who would bear his cross that cross on which he would die as the sin bearer having our sins imputed to him and having the sluice gates of the holy wrath of God opened up and come billowing and cascading down upon his own soul as he hung himself as he hung himself as he hung himself as he hung in nakedness in utter shame rejected by society rejected by the religious crowd forsaken by his own disciples and then even abandoned by his father. Settle it. To be attached to Christ is to be marked

22:05 for the world's scorn and hatred. There is no way that someone can be a true disciple and have the power of the world to be comfortable with him. Listen to what Jesus said in John chapter 15. Words that are so plain, so simple, so blunt that we've got to do I don't know what to get around their clear teaching.

22:33 Verse 18 of John 15. If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. If the world would love its own, if the world loves you, that is this world system under the control of the devil with its perspectives of values and standards of right and wrong, what is acceptable in dress, in entertainment, in human intercourse and action and reaction.

23:04 If this world system loves you and feels comfortable with you, it's a sign that you're still a part of it. If the world hates you, you know that it hated me. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

23:25 Remember the word that I said unto you, a servant is not greater than his Lord. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will keep yours also. Again, the Apostle Paul, writing to Timothy, said in 2 Timothy 3.12, Yes, and all of you, all who will live godly in Christ Jesus, not all who simply name the name of Christ and have a measure of what I have come to call polite, cultural, Reformed Baptist decency. He says all who will live godly in union with Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. It's a clear statement. There's no way we can get around it without seeking to be nasty, without seeking, without seeking to be an irritant.

24:17 If we are living godly in vital union with Christ Jesus, we are instruments of light that expose darkness. And when darkness is exposed, it seeks to resist that exposure and it directs its venom, its opposition to the instrument that is bringing that light. That's why Paul could say to the Philippians, Unto you it has been granted as the gift of God, not only to believe, not only to believe on His name, but to suffer for His sake. And where there is this half-baked attachment to Christ that is so nervous, lest in some way it upset the world, I don't understand it in the light of the words of our Lord Jesus. If we are unwilling to take up our cross, that measure of shame, that measure of rejection, that measure of scorn that comes to us, that measure of shame, that measure of rejection, that measure of scorn, in union with Christ, He says, You cannot be My disciple. The words are clear. No cross, no discipleship.

25:27 No discipleship, no salvation.

Term 3: Commitment to Unswerving Obedience to Christ

25:31 And our Lord makes it plain in this passage that not only must there be a transfer of all supreme loyalty and love to Him, but there must also be, by His grace, a commitment, and a willingness to undergo rejection, misunderstanding, slander, some form of suffering for His namesake in fellowship with Him. Then thirdly, we learn from this passage that discipleship means commitment to a life of unswerving obedience to Christ. Supreme love and loyalty attached to Christ. Willingness, willingness to suffer in fellowship with Christ. But thirdly, unswerving obedience to Christ. Verse 27b,

26:26 If any man, he says, is unwilling to take up his cross and follow Me, and follow Me. To follow Christ is to commit ourselves to regulate all of life by the word and the ways of Christ. We begin our attachment to Christ as disciples when we heed the call of John 6.37.

26:55 All that the Father gives me shall come to me, and him that comes unto me I will in no wise cast out. Discipleship begins in that movement of the soul in repentance and faith that leads us to attachment to Christ. But then, then the same Christ who said, Him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out said, Come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly of heart and you shall find rest to your souls.

27:40 Christ said, Come, but take and learn. And if we truly come to Him on His terms, we come not only to have Him lift the burden of an accusing conscience, to lift the burden of the horrible reality that we stand exposed to the judgment and wrath of Almighty God, but we come to Him with the disposition of willingness to be yoked together with Him. Take my yoke upon you. The yoke either being that instrument that binds two animals together to plow in the same direction to undertake the same task or the yoke that is laid upon the shoulders to carry a burden, but it is Christ's yoke.

28:24 That is an attachment to Christ and His purpose, His direction, His concerns for us as His people. And then he says, Learn from me. That is, you come to have your burden lifted. You come to be yoked to me.

28:41 You come to have your mind increasingly saturated with my yoke. My word, interpreting all of reality, regulating every facet of your life as we saw in our reading in Ephesians 6 this morning. The constant referent point was that it is the Lord. Children, obey your parents in the Lord.

29:02 Servants, you are rendering service as unto the Lord. Masters, remember, you have a Lord. The whole emphasis is that the Christian life is a life lived in the presence of and unto the one God. The one who loved us and gave Himself for us.

29:20 Jesus could describe His sheep in those words of John 10, 27 and following. He said, My sheep are hearing my voice and they are following me and I am giving unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. Discipleship means commitment to a life of unswerving obedience to Christ in which no area of life is cordoned off and we say no sign of the cross on that area of my life. But the willingness that the sign of the cross will be stamped on every single detail of our lives in the use of our time, in the choice of our friends, in our romantic interests, in the way we dress, in the way we spend our money, in the way we use our liberties, in the way we eat, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. I beg you, my professing Christian friend, what area do you have a right to cordon off and say, Jesus, I don't want your words to touch that. I don't want your will to regulate that. No.

30:36 No. He says, You must follow me, the commitment of your heart, no matter how stumbling we may be, no matter how we may fail to live up to the standard. There is no conscious desire to take one facet of life and mark it off and say, Jesus, don't touch it. Not one.

30:59 Not one. And the one you mark off and say, don't touch it, will damn you.

31:07 Because that's the point at which the defiance of your native rebellion against God is manifested. Be my disciple unless you take up the cross and you follow me. Amen. Unconditionally.

31:32 Follow me.

Term 4: Renunciation of All Possessions for Christ's Sake

31:36 But then fourthly, discipleship means the renunciation of all we possess for the sake of Christ. Discipleship means the renunciation of all we possess for the sake of Christ. Look at verse 33 of our passage. Again, words could not be more plain.

32:00 So therefore, whosoever he be of you, that renounces not all that he has, he cannot be my disciple.

32:16 We said, now does that mean that the renunciation means the liquidation of the title to and possession of all that we have? Well, for the rich young ruler it did.

32:31 But the Lord didn't tell everyone what he told the rich young ruler. He told him, sell that you have, give to the poor, come follow me and you'll have eternal life. But he does mean something when he says, renouncing all you have. That's what he says.

32:46 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.

33:28 That's what he's talking about at the most elementary level, renouncing all that we think could in some way commend us to God, coming to Christ in the nakedness of the rich young ruler. the realization nothing in our hands we bring simply to his cross we cling, but it also means the renunciation of any sense that I have independent title to anything I have in the way of gifts, in the way of capacities, abilities, whatever I have in the way of material possessions, a renunciation of all that we have is an essential condition of discipleship. And if you, if you can read your Bible some other way and help me to understand it, please do so. But the words stand before us, whosoever renounces not all that he hath cannot be my disciple.

34:26 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.

34:52 And the same thing with that pearl merchant when he found this one pearl of rare beauty, exquisite beauty. It says he took all of his assets and he liquidated them that he might have that wherewith to purchase the pearl. Discipleship means that we renounce all we possess, for the sake of Christ. 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 natures in the one person live in this sin-cursed world and make his way through to the horrors of the cross in all of its shame and forsakenness and abandonment, then surely when we are given to see something of the love of God in Christ for sinners, we say with the hymn writer, Hear Lord, Hear Lord, I give myself away. Tis all that I can do. So I lay before you these four things that our Lord Jesus says are the non-negotiable terms of discipleship. Supreme love and loyalty transferred to Christ.

Conclusion: Self-Examination and Renewal at the Lord's Table

36:18 Choosing the way of rejection and suffering in fellowship with Christ. Commitment to a life of unswerving obedience to Christ. Renunciation of all we possess for the sake of Christ.

36:37 Have I twisted the passage? Have I made it say more than it obviously says? If so, then the question is am I a disciple? Do I have any faith?

36:49 Do I have any right bearing the badge of baptism? Make disciples of the nations. That is by the preaching of the gospel and the setting forth of the glory and the beauty of Christ in His salvation. By the operation of the Holy Spirit, He says you will see men and women, boys and girls brought to the place where they will see in me my worth.

37:15 And they will say with the Apostle Paul, I count all but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.

37:26 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 some of you young people an ambition, a relationship, a standing in the eyes of others and here unclasp your hands if you're a confessed disciple who comes to this table of remembrance as you take the bread and take the cup say, O Lord, may these hands hold all things this way. Inner renunciation. Those of us who are older, all of our possessions, how long has it been since you've really consciously said from the heart, Lord Jesus, everything I am and have is yours.

38:50 It's stamped with the sign of God. It's the sign of the cross. It's blood-bought property and I'm glad to have it so. May God grant that those of us who are His disciples will find that attachment to Christ deepened and renewed and our faith in the virtue of His dying love for us is strengthened and perhaps for some of you who've been dallying about may God send arrows to your heart and may you hear Jesus say, you're not mine, disciple.

39:23 You haven't come on my terms. Stop this nonsense claiming you're a Christian. You cannot. You cannot.

39:30 You cannot. Three times our Lord says cannot be my disciple. By the grace of God coming on His terms you can become His disciple and in attachment to Him know the blessedness of His cleansing, forgiving and renewing and empowering grace and begin to walk as one who is indeed His disciple. Present yourself for baptism.

39:58 Make disciples baptizing them for when Christ makes us His disciples by His grace it is His will that we openly declare that attachment to Him in the ordinance of His own institution. May God help you, Andrea, all the days of your life to live out what you've declared tonight in saying, I am a disciple of the Lord Jesus. Let's pray. Our Father, we pray that by the Holy Spirit you would take your word and bring it home to each of our hearts with power and may many sitting in this place tonight have deep heart dealings with you. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.