Filadelfia International Church Barcelona

#MONDAYRECAPFICB

We start this series by knowing that to be an apprentice of Jesus is to
organize your life around three goals:

1.)To be with Jesus

2.)To become like Jesus

3.)To do what Jesus did

This is what exactly means to be a follower, a disciple of Jesus.

Discipleship is about growing in Christlikeness.
Following Jesus is whole life endeavor. It is a life- long process. Though we receive our salvation immediately upon responding in faith to what Jesus did for us on the cross, it takes a lifetime to conform our lives to his example. Responding in faith to the call to follow Jesus means we enter into a pattern of recreating our lives to look more like his.

Transformation is a partnership between God and us. Where the Holy Spirit does most of the work but it won’t happen unless we cooperate and surrender.

In our time now, we are programmed to want immediate satisfaction. For instance, people are now used to shopping online and received whatever they want right there at their doorstep within few days. And that is not how spiritual growth or transformation happens.

Luke 9:23-24 –Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.

–Jesus invites us to become His disciples, His apprentice. But from the passage we read, what must happen first for us to go forward? If we want to be his disciples, you and I need to deny ourselves, take up our cross daily and follow after Jesus.

POINTERS

(1) AT THE CENTER OF APPRENTICESHIP TO JESUS IS A SYMBOL: THE CROSS.
How do you look at the cross?
Many people have become so familiar with the cross that they have become insensitive of its reality.

In the Roman empire, anyone who faced a Roman cross never came back alive. In crucifixion, a person was either tied or nailed to a wooden cross and left to hang until dead. Death would be slow and excruciatingly painful; in fact, the word “excruciating” was invented by
the Romans to describe the shame and pain of crucifixion.

The point of crucifixion was to torture and humiliate a person as fully as possible, and to show any bystanders what happens to someone who is a troublemaker in the eyes of Rome. Part of the humiliation and degradation was being left on the cross after death, to be
feasted by scavenging animals.

The cross was not a piece of jewelry that you would wear around your neck. It was not a logo in a church website. It was not a piece
of art that you display. It was a symbol of death.

The invitation of Jesus is really this:
(2) IF YOU WANT TO REALLY LIVE, FIRST YOU HAVE TO DIE.
Deitrich Bonhoeffer, a German Pastor, Author of the Book, The Cost of discipleship had this famous line: “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”
Pastor Bonhoeffer died to himself when he was killed by the SS in Nazi Germany.

For some people: It is a call for a literal death.
This has been happening since the time of Jesus and His disciples. James was beheaded. Peter was crucified upside down at his request since he did not feel worthy to die in the same way as his Lord Jesus. Thomas was burned alive. Nathaniel was skinned alive. John was dipped alive in boiling oil and so on. And to this day, many of our brothers and sisters are being killed for standing on their faith in Jesus.

For all people: self-denial
“In one phrase, what is following Jesus all about? ‘It’s self-denial’
To say ‘Yes’ to Jesus is to say ‘No’ to a thousand other desires.

• to say No to spending your time and money however you want
• to say No to a life of individualism- you give up your independence and control and instead live in community with a group of people different from you. This is one way we are changed.
• it’s saying No to self-expression of your sexual identity or desire or whatever standard.
  The cross is saying whatever, whenever, wherever:
• whatever You say to do, I’ll do it
• wherever You say to go, I’ll go
• whenever You say to go there or not go there, I’m yours and I’m all 100%.” — John Mark Comer
  Our reluctance to embrace self -denial is the reason for the lack of Christlikeness among us.

(3) THE INVITATION OF JESUS IS: “TAKE UP YOUR CROSS DAILY…”
The cross isn’t a one- time event, it’s a way of life. – John Mark Comer

It’s an on-going way of life, it is a daily death to all kinds of things as Paul wrote in Gal. 5
So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions,factions21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness,faithfulness,23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Gal. 5:16-24

We relate to God through our body, mind and soul. But your body is also a battleground between the flesh and the spirit. Everyday we constantly live and face a war of desire within our body and within our mind and within our soul.
One of the key tasks to discipleship to Jesus is learning to “crucify the flesh” or to “put to death the flesh — our sinful desires — in order to experience resurrection life.
But it’s not just the flesh. There are also desires that arise in your heart or your mind that are really good that God is calling you to say no to.

The cross is the foundation of discipleship to Jesus and transformation into his image.
Let’s go back to Luke 9: 23
Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.

It’s not optional. We must deny yourselves, take up your cross, and follow me daily.

But for many this is hard.
As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”(sounds easy) And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God. ”Yet, another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:57-62

We all make excuses to justify our lack of self-denial. And taking care of our family is our favorite. Notice in this passage the problem is not a problem of belief; the problem is that they are
not willing to pay the price to become a disciple of Jesus.
But Jesus was direct and honest in letting his disciples know that there is a cost in following Him.

In Luke 14
Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple.(Jesus is actually saying you need to love me more than the dearest, closest passion and love
of your heart. Not only in the context of Jewish culture this is true, but for many of us it’s our family).27 And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.28 “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? 29 For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, 30 saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’31 “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples. Luke 14:25-33

(4) JESUS WAS HONEST AND DIRECT TO SAY THAT FOLLOWING HIM HAS A COST AND BEFORE YOU SAY YES, YOU NEED TO COUNT THE COST!
But again for many this way is too much…
Luke 18
A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”19 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 20 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’”21 “All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said.22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” (maybe
you are thinking now, I am not rich. Let’s say, Jesus tells you to sell your car, sell your LV, sell your apartment, or sell all you have and follow me. What would you say?)23 When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy. – Luke 18:18-23

He just could not take up his cross and follow Jesus. He could not just die to himself. The obstacle between him and Jesus was money. All of us has some kind of an obstacle or more that is between us and Jesus. It could be money, or wealth, or relationships or power or any other thing that stands in the way of our following to Jesus. Again, each of us needs to die to be able to experience life to the full. But this young rich ruler just couldn’t.

How can you talk about self-denial in an age of self
fulfillment?

Skye Jethani. (Author) The Divine Commodity
“My secret is that I want to be relevant and popular. I want my desires fulfilled and pain minimized. I want a manageable relationship with an institution rather than messy relationships with real people. I want to be transformed into the image of Christ by showing up at entertaining events rather than through the hard work of discipline. I want to wear my faith on my sleeve and not look at the darkness in my heart. And above all, I want a controllable god. I want a divine commodity to do my will on earth as well as in heaven.”

We live in a tension between the invitation of Jesus to take up your cross, deny yourself and follow me and the age of self- fulfillment – I love me.

In our time, we possess more power to pursue self -fulfillment in terms of security and material things than any people in history because of the advance technology that we have.

Self -fulfillment says

• The best way to find yourself is by looking within yourself.
• To be fulfilled in life, you should pursue the things you desire most.
• The highest goal of life is to enjoy it as much as possible.
• People can believe whatever they want, as long as those beliefs do not affect society.
• Any kind of sexual expression between two consenting adults is acceptable.

You are the authority and the one who determines what is right and wrong for yourself. You get away with any form of external authority because that’s controlling and to become your authentic self in freedom.

Freedom now has a new meaning
“Freedom has been redefined. It used to mean the freedom to want the good, the beautiful and the true and to exercise the willpower to do the good, the beautiful and the true. But now when people talk about freedom they basically mean the freedom to do whatever the heck they want as long as they don’t hurt anybody.” — John Mark Comer

We see this on the rise of sexual liberation gospel, the idea that sexual desires are normal and expressing and fulfilling them are not shameful as long as they do not harm anybody. As if that is the highest good in life to fulfill your sexual desires whenever you want it, with whom you ever want it, however you want it, then you have a happy life.
Of course, we reject this belief!
There is a big tension between the gospel of the Lordship of Jesus and individualism in today’s society. Keep your laws off my body. Be yourself.

“To come under authority is to surrender under your own free will, your autonomy and control over your life to somebody else…and many hate that ” — John Mark Comer

This tension is not just out there but also in the church among us Christians. Many are using the way of Jesus to pursue the way of self.

We want the best of both worlds: We want to be generous AND we want to be rich. We want to follow Jesus AND to live like a Hollywood celebrity. We want character BUT we do not want the suffering and the perseverance that it takes to produce that character. We want humility BUT we definitely don’t want any form of humiliation. We want patience BUT
we don’t want to actually wait. We want to be a person who is full of kindness BUT we don’t want anyone in our life who annoys us or who agitates us. We want to hear God’s voice and to experience his presence in our lives BUT we don’t want to actually get up early and take
time to focus in on prayer. We want the life of Jesus BUT we don’t want to take up the cross of Jesus.

Honestly, we all live in this tension. In what area of your life are you convicted to deny yourself? In reality we have thousands of chances to die, you have so many opportunities to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Jesus.

“Following Jesus is about those moments where you have that decision to make between the flesh and the Spirit.(between watching or not, eating or not, buying or not, forgiving or not, you fill in the blanks what is it for you.) Following Jesus is a thousand small deaths that lead to one massive life.” — John Mark Comer

Ask Jesus: Is there something between me and you, something in my life that has to die in order for me to live? What is the Holy Spirit revealing, convicting in your heart that you need to settle before God?

“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again (the man cannot own the treasure because he doesn’t own the land) and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field.” Matthew 13:44

This is what following Jesus is like! Was it a sacrifice for that man to buy the field? Yes, kind of. But did he get a bad or a good deal? A really good deal! So no matter what you have to die or give up, let go control of, you get far more in return. You can’t out give God.

Challenge:
What will it cost you to follow Jesus- to be a real disciple of Jesus?
Discipleship to Jesus will cost you, to reorient your life to be with Jesus, become like Jesus and do what He did. It will cost you.
What will it cost you to not follow Jesus – to believe in Jesus but to not be a real disciple? To have no faith in Jesus or no commitment, that would cost you even more. It will cost you, your relationship with God, it will cost you the fruit of the Spirit in your life – to have love, joy, peace, patience and so on. It will cost you, your whole life more than you know.

You and I have to count the cost. Saying yes to Jesus is to take up your cross, deny yourself, follow me.

We can have the desire to be His disciples, just like someone has the desire to build a tower or a king has a desire to win a war. But we will not be able to fulfill that desire if we lack self denial.

“St. Ignatius of Loyola notes that, ‘Sin is unwillingness to trust that what God wants is our deepest happiness.’

Do you trust Jesus? Do you trust that He’s good, not a dictator, but He has good intentions toward you?

Surrender and give up your control to Jesus, that’s when real, true freedom in life come.

Self-denial is not a loss but a gain. We gain a life in God’s love, secured in his promises, we receive an eternal future of joy in his presence.

The choice is clear: pursue the temporary satisfaction of self-fulfillment or accept the eternal reward found in Christ’s call to self denial.