Today, before we look at Luke 9, I again want to ask for
your prayers. This coming Saturday the 11th, I will be leaving for a
Southeast Asian country. Would you be willing to join me in this great ministry of
prayer so that the multitudes in this Asian country can hear the Truth of God’s
Word and find out Who Jesus really is? Let me know by sending me an email at: pastormike@pmiministries.org Also, if you would like to financially
support this great opportunity, please go to my website: https://www.pmiministries.org/
In Luke 9:6-36, Jesus is performing several ministries as
He completes His northern Galilean ministry. In verses 1-11, Jesus is sending out
His disciples to minister. In verses 12-17, Jesus is feeding the five thousand men
with their families. Now, in verses 18-36, Jesus is teaching. He first teaches
His disciples about His person (vv. 18-20). When He asks them who they believe
He is, Peter responds that He is “The Christ of God.”
Secondly in verses 21-22, Jesus is teaching about His
suffering, His sacrificial death, and His resurrection. But almost immediately
after this startling statement about His death, Jesus begins to speak about
what it really means to be His disciple. I can only imagine that after the
crowds have experience His miraculous ministry for the past two years, that
many of them were moved emotionally and “desired to be with Him” all the time.
This is so true for so many believers today. When we first get
saved and experience Jesus’ forgiveness, His love and compassion, and
deliverance from the guilt and bondage of our sins, we are so emotionally moved
we “desire” to follow Him the rest of our life. But we have no clue what that
really means! So, Jesus gives a lesson on discipleship and teaches and describes
what that really means.
It definitely is not a life of ease, but like Jesus, it
involves surrender, “you must deny yourself”, it involves suffering, “you must take
up your cross daily”, and it involves sacrifice, “you must lose your life for
His sake”.
The closest contemporary word to "disciple" is
probably "apprentice." A disciple is more than a student who learns
lessons by means of lectures and books. He is one who learns by living and
working with his teacher in a daily "hands on" experience. Too many
Christians are content to be listeners who gain a lot of knowledge but who have
never put that knowledge into practice.
Jesus laid down the stem requirements for discipleship. We
must first say no to ourselves, not simply to pleasures or possessions, but to
self, and then take up our cross and follow Christ daily. This means to be
identified with Him in surrender, suffering, and sacrifice. You cannot crucify
yourself; you can only yield your body and let God do the rest. Paul puts it
this way in Romans 12:1-2; “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the
mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy,
acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to
this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove
what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
In Galatians 2:20, Paul writes: “I have been crucified
with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life
which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me
and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 5:24 tells us: “And those who are
Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” And then
we can say with Paul, “But God forbid that I should boast except in the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and
I to the world” (Galatians 6:14).
“Only one life,’twill soon be past, Only what’s done for
Christ will last” (C.T. Studd). “He is no fool who gives up that which he
cannot keep, to gain that which he cannot lose!” (Jim Elliot)
Discipleship is a daily discipline: we follow Jesus a step
at a time, a day at a time.
God bless!
