The Cost of Discipleship

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I read an article this week that was talking about these rideshare apps. And I think some of you have driven for these. There are some that will just do rides wherever you want to go.

There are some that will deliver food to you. And they’ve gotten to be big business. And this article was talking about how people working for these companies, it has reintroduced the concept of what economists call opportunity cost to our society.

Opportunity cost is the realization that every choice we make, there’s a cost involved, not necessarily financial, although in many cases there’s a financial cost, but for every choice we make, it costs us all the other things we could be choosing at the same time. Like today we went to lunch and sometimes I struggle with what sandwich do I want to order. And I tried something different today, but I had to stand there while there.

I hate ordering for this reason because I always feel like somebody’s breathing down my neck. wanting me to hurry it up. But I ordered something different and I thought, I’m giving up the opportunity to have this other sandwich that I like.

There’s an opportunity cost here. And it worked out well because I like the new thing I tried, but what if I didn’t like it? I’ve paid all that money and I’ve lost the opportunity to have a sandwich that I know I like.

So this article was talking about these people that do the rideshare gigs and how they have a choice. You know, it’s early on a Saturday morning. Do they stay in their PJs and watch Netflix?

Well, a lot of them are thinking, I’m missing out on those fares if I go drive for Uber or Lyft or what have you. And so they’re realizing that if I choose to do this, I’m saying no to this and there’s a cost. But then again, if I choose to say I’m going to pick up that job and I’m going to go drive this fare, then I’m giving up a little bit of rest and relaxation. And it’s made people start to realize that there’s a cost to every decision we make.

That there’s a cost to every action. There’s even a cost to inaction. And we know that there were not rideshare apps back 2,000 years ago, but Jesus dealt with something similar, this idea of opportunity cost. 2,000 years ago, in talking to His disciples, the passage we’re going to look at tonight, Jesus explained to His disciples that there is a cost involved in following Him.

There’s also a cost involved in the decision to not follow Him. And so He lays out for them what some of those costs are going to be. And so we’re going to be in Mark chapter 8 tonight.

We’re going to be at the end of Mark chapter 8. And then I don’t know why they divided the chapter sometimes the way that they do. know that that was not inspired.

That didn’t come down off Mount Sinai, divided in chapters. That was a few hundred years ago. They introduced the chapter divisions.

And the reason I bring it up is because we’re going to be in the very beginning of chapter 9 as well. I think chapter 9, verse 1 goes with chapter 8. Because chapter 9, we get to the transfiguration.

and I think verse 1 fits better with this discussion than it does with the transfiguration. So when I say we’re doing chapter 8 and chapter 9, don’t panic and think we’re doing two full chapters. We’re doing one verse of the next chapter.

But we’ll be in Mark chapter 8 and we’re going to start in verse 34 if you’d turn there with me. Once you find it, if you’d stand, if you’re able to without too much trouble as we read from God’s Word together. And if you can’t find it or don’t have a Bible with you, it’ll be on the screen for you.

But Mark chapter 8, starting in verse 34, is where Jesus gets into this idea of the costs. It says, When He had called the people to Himself with His disciples also, He said to them, Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the Gospels will save it.

For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

And he said to them, Assuredly I say to you that there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God present with power. And you may be seated. The one thing that is most abundantly clear from this passage as we read through it is that it will cost us to follow Jesus.

It’s going to cost us something if we want to follow Him. He lays that out for us right there at the beginning in verse 34 when He says, Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. Now to really understand what’s going on in this passage, We have to think back to what we’ve just studied, what has just happened right before this.

And so think back to last week, what we discussed. There was the conversation that Peter and Jesus had. Really, Jesus is talking to all of the disciples and said, who do you say that I am?

Peter says, you’re the Christ. You’re the Messiah, the Son of the living God. And Jesus says, you got it right. The Father revealed this to you.

You didn’t just figure this out by human wisdom. The Father revealed this to you. and then in almost the next breath Jesus begins to talk about how he’s going to be rejected and humiliated how he’s going to suffer how he’s going to die how he’s going to return he lays the plans all out for his disciples and Peter said I will never let this happen and Jesus goes from saying first of all Peter goes from saying you’re the Lord to Lord you don’t know what you’re saying this can’t happen and Jesus goes from saying blessed are you Simon son of Jonah to get thee behind me Satan.

You know we’ve kind of come full circle here and there’s this idea that Peter has that like I talked about this morning that wait you’re the Lord you shouldn’t suffer and it goes hand in hand with this idea that we’re following Jesus we shouldn’t suffer and Jesus said you really don’t understand what I’m doing here you’re looking at it from a human perspective really you’re looking at it from Satan’s perspective And so there’s this idea that you wouldn’t suffer. And that leads right into what Jesus is explaining to them here. That if you want to follow me, if you want to follow me, there’s going to be a cost. And there’s a cost for each one of us.

You know, it’s different today than it was then, but there’s still a cost. So while Peter is still trying to figure out how he can just usher Jesus with ease into this kingdom, into this rule where he’s in charge of everything, and it’s this great golden age that so many people were expecting out of the Messiah. As Peter’s looking ahead to the sunshine and the roses, Jesus drops a truth bomb on him, and says that the road that Jesus is about to travel, it’s not just that there’s going to be suffering occasionally along the way, but the road is paved with suffering. That’s what this whole journey is made up of.

And it was going to be that way for anybody who follows Jesus. So he says in verse 34, whoever desires to come after me. Now this is kind of an invitation to Peter and to the rest of the disciples.

He said, you are welcome to come with me. Because that’s been Peter’s thing. I’ll go with you anywhere, Lord.

But he still has in the back of his mind it’s all going to be great. It’s all going to be triumphant. I’ll go with you anywhere.

They’re still all arguing about who’s going to be the greatest in the kingdom, but they’re willing to go with him anywhere. Jesus said, you’re welcome to come where I go. Anybody that wants to come with me, You can come, but the decision is going to be costly.

And he says, here’s the cost. Let him deny himself. This idea of denying himself. You know, I told you last week, I think it was, that I can read and write some of these phrases in Greek, but I can’t always pronounce them because the oaky is just too strong.

I’m not even going to try this one. I practiced it this week, and I’m looking at it tonight, and it looks like Greek to me. I’m not going to try to pronounce it because I know I’m going to get it wrong.

But the word means more than just denying ourselves certain pleasures. We think of it that way. I’m going to deny myself.

You know what? I’m not going to have cake tonight. That’s our idea of denying ourselves.

I’m going to make a wise decision. I’m not going to have cake tonight. You know what?

I’d really love to watch the rest of this movie, but I’m going to go to bed at a reasonable hour because it’ll be better for me in the long run. That’s the kind of thing we think about with denying ourselves. We want to deny ourselves certain pleasures.

But this is more than that.

this is a call to disown ourselves it’s a call to turn our backs on the privilege of running our own lives it is a call for us to step out of the driver’s seat and say I am not in charge here anymore you know it’s not about what I want it’s not about what makes me happy it’s not about what makes me fulfilled it’s not about pleasures and by the way none of those things are evil in and of themselves they’re just not the main point like I’ve started saying around the office you know the church isn’t here to make everybody happy but it sure is nice when it happens right it’s not a bad thing it’s just not the main thing and this is a call for us to realize that what we want is not the main thing hey if if our desires and the lord’s desires line up then great all the better but our desires are no longer the main thing denying ourselves is not just about saying I’m gonna put off what I want or or here in this area I’m gonna step back from what I want it’s the whole thing.

He says if we want to follow Him, we have to let Him be Lord. We have to acknowledge Him as Lord. We have to treat Him like Lord.

We have to deny ourselves. And that entails the next part, which is taking up our cross. And to us, we look at that like a little thing.

You know, maybe a co-worker irritates you and you say, well, they’re my cross to bear. Let me tell you, that co-worker may be awful, but they’re nothing like the cross. The cross was an instrument of torture.

The cross was an instrument of execution. It was brutal. It was bloody. It was horrific.

The only thing I can think of in our modern world that even comes close in terms of shock value, just in terms of brutality, are some of the stories that I’ve heard that came out of the killing fields of Cambodia. And I know I use this example a lot, but it’s one of the areas of history that fascinates me. But you see pictures of museums where there are skulls, human skulls, just stacked on top of each other.

And you go into the high school that they converted into a prison and torture chamber back in the 70s. And there are still the hammers that they used to beat people to death with. And it’s horrific.

And we understand the brutality of what happened. And it would be like saying to somebody who lived through that, pick up the hammer. Pick up the hammer that was used to bludgeon your loved ones.

That’s the image. When Jesus points them to the most brutal instrument of torture that they knew in that day and said, take up that cross. Because by the way, when you carried the cross, it was usually because you were going to your place of execution.

Now in Jesus’ case, they had beaten Him twice already. And so He was so weakened from blood loss that He had to have help carrying the cross, but He set out carrying it Himself. When somebody was told to pick up the cross, it was because they were going to go and have it used on them.

And so He told them, take up the cross. Instead of avoiding the suffering the way Peter is urging them to do, Jesus said that being His disciple means you have to take that suffering and embrace it willingly. And Luke adds, you might see in the handout, Luke adds in chapter 9, verse 23, that they’re supposed to do this daily.

This is a decision we have to make daily. We probably all deal with this sort of issue where you make a commitment to the Lord and you say, I’m going to do this. I’m going to follow you.

I’m going to give this area to you. And we mean it. But the next day or a few days later, we start taking it back.

And you start saying, I kind of want to be in charge of this again. It’s like I tell my kids. It’s a day-to-day thing.

It’s every day making the decision that I’m going to follow the Lord today. That I’m going to do what’s right today. It’s every day.

and sometimes even moment by moment, I think, that we remind ourselves, no, I’m coming after Him. I’m taking up the cross. I’m denying myself.

He adds that it needs to be done daily. That we’re willingly embracing that suffering. Like I said this morning, it doesn’t mean that we have to like the idea of suffering.

It doesn’t mean that we have to look forward to suffering. But our attitude should be, I don’t necessarily want to suffer, but if I’m going to suffer, I want to suffer faithfully. You understand the difference, right?

I don’t want to do this. We can look at a situation and say, I don’t want to do this, but if I’m going to do it, I want to do it in a way that glorifies God. By the way, that’s what Jesus did too.

Father, if there’s any other way, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done. There’s nothing wrong with saying, man, I wish I didn’t have to go through this.

As long as you follow it up with, but I will. So he said to take up their cross. He said, and follow me.

Go the same direction. Follow his example. Follow his example of suffering and submission to the plan of God while shunning the worldly way of ease and comfort.

We should be willing to do that. Now, understand, I don’t believe that this means every moment of our lives have to be absolute misery. I don’t think that’s what the Bible teaches either.

I don’t think it means that you’re a bad Christian if you have a place to go home to tonight and food to eat. that the only way to be a good Christian is to be suffering and starving to death out on the street. I don’t think that’s what it means at all.

Because there were times that they enjoyed their time together. There were times that they enjoyed their fellowship. There were moments, but then there were those moments where it came time to be willing to do the hard things when God called them to, and they had to be willing to do that as well.

But he tells us to follow his example, follow him. And so there’s this cost. The cost of following Jesus basically means that we are no longer in charge, but we submit ourselves to what His plan is, to what His will is, even if it’s hard, even if it leads to suffering. So we might look at that and say, well, I don’t want that.

They might have easily looked at that and said, well, that doesn’t sound like the deal I signed up for. And so Jesus warns us that there are also dangers involved in trying to avoid the cost. He says in verse 35, for whoever desires to save his life will lose it. You know, we can work hard to preserve our lives.

We can work hard to try to preserve everything that we hold dear to us. We can end up holding it all very closely and still end up losing it one day. We can say for them, no, I’m not going to follow him because I might end up losing my life.

For them, they might literally get killed. They might literally lose their lives. And Jesus says, you can work really hard to hold on to it, but you’re still going to lose it one day anyway, because this life won’t last forever.

For us, we may not want to serve Him because of our livelihood or because of our interests or these other things that we hold dear. And so instead, we try very hard to hold on to those things. Eventually, they’re going to go away too.

If nothing else, we die and we can’t take it with us. All these things that we fought so hard to preserve. And so there’s a cost that we can say, Lord, I’m not willing to pay that cost because I want to hold on to all these things.

And he points out that you’re going to lose it anyway. Meanwhile, there’s nothing we can lose here on earth that is not going to be more than made up for by the blessings that he provides. There’s nothing that you can lose that Jesus can’t more than make up for.

Because he says in verse 35, whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it. Jesus is more than capable of compensating for what we’ve given up. And especially as he’s talking to his followers about being with him in the kingdom.

Listen, you hold on to your life. Again, in their circumstances, it talked about their actual lives they might lose. So they hold on to it.

Still, it was a rough existence. Still, it was a struggle. Even though we don’t live in as dire circumstances and poverty and sickness as they did, this world is not always a great place, is it?

The whole world is not just one theme park. There’s some great things about this world, but other days the world is just rotten, right? And life is hard.

So we give up that life for Him. What have we really given up? Because the life He gives us is better.

It’s the life that’s spoken of in Revelation where it says He will wipe away all the tears from their eyes. there’ll be no more death no more crying no more pain the former things have all passed away he more than makes up for what we lose and on top of that if we decide we’re going to try to avoid the cost so we can hold on to things there’s nothing we can collect there’s nothing that we can accomplish there’s nothing that we can amass that we can then turn around and and barter with to trade for the security of our souls he says in verses 36 and 37 what will it profit what will what profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? What benefit is it to you if you end up with everything?

What benefit is it if you end up the richest man on earth and lose your soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? What do you have that you can, what are you going to end up with that you can somehow cut a deal at the end?

We have the option of choosing to reject Jesus if we think it’s going to make our lives easier. We have the option of not following him, of not coming to him, but in the end we’re going to lose more than we ever would have if we’d simply incurred the cost of following him to begin with. The cost that we thought was so high of following Jesus will look like nothing compared to what we lose out in the end.

And some though will persist in rejecting him only to be rejected by him at his return. He talks about his return in verse 38. They’ll be rejected by him at his return because he never knew them.

There’s not going to be any deal to cut. There’s not going to be anything to give in exchange for the soul. And Jesus is going to say, I never knew you.

He says, whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in glory, in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. He says, there’s going to be a day when he returns, when he judges mankind, and people who rejected him are going to come flocking to him, only to be rejected in turn, Because He never knew them. Now I want to be clear, I don’t think any of this is teaching that we earn our salvation by following Him well.

I don’t believe that any of this is teaching that our salvation is based on performance. Because the Bible is too clear in too many places that we are born again by faith. We are justified by faith.

It is a gift of God by His grace, our salvation. Not something that we earn or deserve. But when we are born again by faith, it is going to result in a love for Jesus that compels us to follow Him.

And so I think if we belong to Him, we’re going to desire to follow Him. And I think this is meant as reassurance that anything we lose in that pursuit, He’s more than going to make up for. But to those that are listening when He gives this warning initially that are just kind of standing around on the periphery, those that are just following Him for the miracles or the free food or just following Him for the novelty of it all, And they can’t really make up their minds whether they want to follow Jesus or not.

They don’t really belong to Him and they don’t really love Him. When it gets difficult, they’re going to show that by breaking fellowship with Him and not following Him, rejecting Him or being ashamed of Him. And if they look at that cost and say, no, that’s too much, that’s not what makes them separated from Him.

It just shows that they are separated from Him already. I think this is reassurance to His followers. This is reassurance to them that even though they’re about to suffer, and even though there’s a great cost, he’s going to more than make up for it.

And the reward of following Jesus is greater than the cost. He points out to some of these disciples what they’re going to experience as a result of the cost. He tells them that some of them are going to witness the coming of the kingdom. He says there in chapter 9, verse 1, Assuredly, I say to you that there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God present with power. Now, when we see the kingdom discussed in the New Testament, it can be tricky because there are all sorts of shades of meaning behind that word.

There are all sorts of things that it can refer to. It can refer to things in eternity. It can refer to His rule over us.

Now we’re part of the kingdom if we belong to Him. It can refer to all sorts of things. And some people have even taken this out of context because they think when the kingdom comes, that’s talking about the second coming, that’s talking about eternity, and so he says some of them would not taste death until they see the kingdom come.

And they’ll say, well, that was a failed prophecy. Because every one of these guys was dead by about AD 100, and yet the kingdom hasn’t come. Well, not in that sense it hasn’t come.

But there are several things that he could be talking about contextually. they were looking for an earthly messianic kingdom. Don’t forget, they were looking for him because they believed he was the Messiah, and they believed the Messiah was going to be a political leader who was going to throw the Romans out, restore the kingdom of David, start up a golden age for Israel.

That’s the sort of thing that they were looking for. They were looking for him to do the things that a king would do that they expected, and that would be the coming of the kingdom, they thought. And so when I read that he’s talking about the coming of his kingdom, I think he’s talking about the fulfillment of his role as the Messiah.

Doing the things that the Messiah was actually there to do. Fulfilling those prophecies. I think a lot of this about the coming of the kingdom deals with him being revealed as the Messiah at the crucifixion.

At the resurrection. You know, right after this, he’s glorified at the transfiguration. They knew he was the Messiah.

They knew he was the Son of God. But they see that sort of unveiled. And we’ll look at that in the next couple weeks.

They see this unveiled and they see him in his glory. on the Mount of Transfiguration. That could be what he’s talking about.

You will see the kingdom. You’ll see the king in all of his glory. That could be what he’s talking about.

Some of them are going to see him crucified and risen, fulfilling his mission, doing the things that are part of what the Messiah is supposed to do. And they’ll see him fulfilling his kingdom mission in that way. Some of them are going to see him ascend to heaven, at which point he’s going to be enthroned at the Father’s right hand.

They’re going to see the culmination of his. . .

see his coronation where he sits down on the throne in heaven. And they may not actually see that, but they’re going to see him go up to it. That could be what he’s talking about.

And so we don’t know what specific incident he’s referring to in verse 1. Maybe all of it. Maybe the transfiguration.

Maybe the crucifixion and resurrection. Maybe the ascension. Maybe all of it.

But I don’t see any reason other than the fact that he had just been talking about it in verse 38 to think that he’s still talking about his return. But what we do know from verse 1 where he says, some of you will not taste death until you see the kingdom come. We know that he was telling them they were going to have the experience of the glory of the kingdom in whatever shape and form that took.

That even as they suffered with Jesus, as they had to endure that experience, as they had to go through the trouble, at the end of that they were going to get a taste of what it was all for. They were going to see him come into his glory. Again, whether it was the transfiguration, whether it was the crucifixion, the resurrection, the ascension, they were going to get to see these plans play out as the kingdom became a reality.

They were going to get to understand what it was for. They were going to get to see the Father’s plans fulfilled. They were going to get to see Jesus do everything he had promised.

And then ultimately, yes, they were going to get to be in the kingdom forever, just as you and I will be. And so the fact that he was pointing them to this idea of a reward reminds us of the reward that we’re promised in heaven. That again, we don’t get because we’ve followed well, because we’ve been perfect.

But as believers, we can endure the suffering because we know that eventually it has an end, and we know that the reward at that end is to be with him in his kingdom, and we know that the reward is greater than the cost ever was. And so looking at all of this, we still have this statement that Jesus made, that if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. Jesus has called us as believers to count the cost and follow him with the assurance, with the assurance that there’s nothing we lose that he does not more than make up for.

With the assurance that anything we lose, He’s worth losing it all for. We’re to count the cost and follow Him because He has paid everything for us. He paid for all of our sin so that we could be with Him forever.

And because of what He’s done for us, He deserves for us to follow Him as Master and Lord.