Everyday Discipleship

1. Everyday Discipleship The Reward of Discipleship

2. Everyday Discipleship • “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Lk. 9:23). • A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master…” (Mt. 10:24, 25a). • “You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you” (Jn. 13:13-15).

3. The reward of Discipleship is the life that it brings.

4. Everyday Discipleship The Cost of Discipleship No one can doubt that the cost of everyday discipleship is very high.

5. Everyday Discipleship Summoning the crowd along with His disciples, He said to them, “If anyone wants to be My follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. For whosever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of Me and the gospel will save it.

6. Everyday Discipleship For what does it benefit a man to gain the whole world yet lose his life? What can a man give in exchange for his life? For whoever is ashamed of Me and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels” (Mark 8:34-38).

7. Everyday Discipleship The Cost of Discipleship • Self-denial vs Denying self • Many are willing to deny themselves some form of indulgence, i.e., Lent • However, denying self is much deeper and challenging, it is self- repudiation (cp. Mt. 26:69-74; Mk. 14:66-72)

8. Everyday Discipleship The Cost of Discipleship • “Take up your cross and follow me” - Jesus • Over 30,000 people are believed to have been crucified by the Romans. The cross was a cruel, long, lonely death. • There are no “easy crosses”

9. Everyday Discipleship The Cost of Discipleship • One of the great juxtapositions is here. The person finding life will lose it, but the one who loses his life will find it. (cp. Jn. 12:25) • When we live to be happy and fulfilled. Our philosophy soon becomes, “take it easy: eat, drink, and enjoy yourself.” (cp. Lk. 12:13-21) • We spend too much time trying to “find ourselves. If you are serious about finding yourself, then lose yourself for Christ. (cp. Col. 3:1-4)

10. Everyday Discipleship The Cost of Discipleship No one can doubt that the cost of everyday discipleship is very high. But also one should not doubt that the reward of everyday discipleship is greater than the cost.

11. Everyday Discipleship • If we consider the unblushing promises of rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” – CS Lewis

12. Everyday Discipleship • The Disciples Reward • Then Peter responded to Him, “Look, we have left everything and followed You. So what will there be for us?” (Mt. 19:27, emphasis, mine)

13. Everyday Discipleship • The Disciples Reward • “I assure you,” Jesus said, “there is no one who has left house, brothers or sisters, mother or father, children, or fields because of Me and the gospel, who will not receive 100 times more, now at this time-houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions-and eternal life in the age to come” (Mark 10:29-30).

14. Everyday Discipleship • Jesus Is Life • Jesus came to live among men for one reason and one reason only – to give us life! • The theme in the gospel of John is that Jesus is Life and that Jesus gives life.

15. Everyday Discipleship • Jesus Is Life • In the Word was life (Jn. 1:4); I am the bread of life (6:48); the bread of God comes down from heaven and gives life to the world (6:33); if any one eats this bread he will live forever (6:51,58); I am the Way, the Truth and the Life (14:6); I have come that they might have life (10:10); God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life, he who has not the Son has not life (1Jn. 5:11,12).

16. Everyday Discipleship • Jesus Is Life • “It is clear that the principle of that life which is pure and unmixed with any other element, resides in Jesus. Only in Christ we can live the life which is true life, while all those who are thought to live apart from this…have not the true light and have not the true life.” (adapted)

17. Everyday Discipleship Bumper Sticker Theology Know Jesus Know Life; No Jesus No Life

18. Everyday Discipleship • The Crown of Life • 1Cor. 9:24-27 • In the world of ancient Greece, the word translated “crown” (stephanos) often referred to the wreath put around the head of a victor in an athletic event, such as the original Olympic games.

19. Everyday Discipleship • The Crown of Life • The term “crown of life” is an appositional genitive in the Greek text, which means it could literally be translated, “the crown that is life.” The crown is eternal life, which God has promised to those who love Him. It is the disciple’s ultimate reward.

20. Everyday Discipleship Crown of Life “In the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing” (2 Tim. 4:8).

21. Everyday Discipleship Crown of Life “When the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory” (1Peter 5:4).

22. Everyday Discipleship Crown of Life “Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Rev. 2:10).

23. Everyday Discipleship • Is there reward for the person who is a true disciple? Yes, there is: he becomes more like Jesus everyday and one special day he will share in His life and glory forever.