A Call to Commitment

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Well, as Brother Jeff mentioned a few minutes ago in his prayer, before too long we will be celebrating Easter, which we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus every day, But every week, that’s the reason why we gather on Sundays, is to commemorate the day that Jesus rose from the dead. But once a year, we celebrate Easter as a holiday. And some of you, and some of your families, you’ll be doing things like dying Easter eggs.

That’s something that we used to do when I was a kid. The family would get together and we would dye Easter eggs. And then, especially when we were little, we would hunt the Easter eggs.

Sometimes we wouldn’t just dye them. We’d put stickers on them. We’d paint them.

We’d do all, you know, it became a very creative deal. But that meant that when we hunted the Easter eggs, there were always certain eggs that were in high demand. Because we liked the sticker that was on that egg. Or we liked the way it was painted.

So I want that egg. And you might find yourself, you know, I won’t name any names, but you might find yourself in a situation where one kid gets the egg and another one wants it. Well, it’s mine because I found it.

Well, it’s mine because I made it. I don’t know if you’ve ever been in a fight over an egg, but they’re not the sturdiest things in the world. Good thing is they’re hard-boiled, but if you’ve got an egg that you want to keep and somebody comes after it, you’re going to hold on to it tighter.

Well, you can only hold on to it so tight or what happens. It’s not a trick question. Yeah, it cracks.

Some of y’all were afraid to answer. It cracks, and then you don’t get to keep it. Once upon a time, I thought I’d get really smart and I’d just find the egg I wanted and re-hide it better in the yard so nobody else would, and then I’d go get it later.

You don’t leave eggs for hours in Oklahoma. You don’t get to keep them. You can hold on to something so tight in an effort to not lose it that you end up ensuring that you’re going to lose it.

And that’s what Jesus talks about in Luke chapter 6. as we continue our study of the book of Luke. And we’re up to chapter 6.

We come to something that’s called the Sermon on the Plain, is what a lot of Bible scholars call it. And it’s different from the Sermon on the Mount. We can talk tonight about how we know that the two are different, or what leads us to the conclusion that the two are different.

But if you’ll recall last week when we were in Luke chapter 6, Jesus went away from the crowds, and He went up to a mountain, And then he called 12 of his disciples and said, you’re going to be apostles, which was an extra calling on top of being a disciple. He said, you’re going to be apostles. You’re going to be the people that I spend three years investing in so that you’ll be able to carry on my work and you’ll be ambassadors for me.

That’s what that word basically means, is to send somebody out with your authority to speak and act on your behalf. And then he came back down to the crowd, and that’s where we pick up in Luke chapter 6. So if you haven’t already turned there, please turn there with me.

We’re not going to look at the whole sermon on the plane today. We’re going to look at the beginning of it in one example of what we call the Beatitudes. Once you find Luke chapter 6 verse 20, if you’d stand as we read together from God’s Word, and if you don’t have your Bible or can’t find the passage, it’ll be on the screen for you.

Here’s what it says. And turning his gaze toward his disciples, he began to say, blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied.

Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you and ostracize you and insult you and scorn your name as evil for the sake of the Son of Man. Be glad in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven.

For in the same way their fathers used to treat the prophets. But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you shall be hungry.

Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way. You may be seated.

Now, the first thing we notice as we come to this passage is that he sets out two lists of things that people were doing or characteristics that they had, and they basically are mirror images of each other. He lists four things, four characteristics, and he says, blessed are you if you have these four characteristics. And then on the other side, after that, he lists four woes and says, woe to you if you have these four.

And each of the four, in order, are mirror images of each other. And what Jesus has just done here for the Pharisees, for anybody listening, really, was to take everything that they knew about being right with God and to turn it on its head. Jesus overturns human standards of righteousness.

Now, what I mean by this is that they had the belief, it was a prominent view in their day, it, wealth was equal with righteousness. Now, having money, having stuff, it didn’t make you righteous, but if you were right with God, He was going to bless you with material blessings. And so you could look and know who was righteous based on how God had filled up their bank account.

The presumption was if you were poor, if you were struggling in some way, it must mean somewhere you were out of step with God’s will. If you were prospering, it must mean that you were right where God wanted you to be. As a matter of fact, you know, a few weeks ago, I talked to you about the 24 chapters outside of the Bible from the Mishnah that explain rules on the Sabbath.

That same section of the Mishnah called the Tractate Shabbat says, the righteous in this world have good things in store for them in the world to come, and even in this world they are blessed with wealth, honor, and longevity. So it was just assumed if you had those things, it was a sign that you were right with God. Jesus comes and throws out a concept that was completely opposite of that, and he’s using words that indicated God’s favor or disfavor.

We read blessed, and we think, well, it just means you’ve got some blessings. You’re happy. That’s certainly true, but it means more than that.

That Greek word makarios, if I’m pronouncing it right, I don’t know, but I’m not great at pronunciation. But that Greek word is a word that they would use to indicate being in God’s favor. And so he’s talking to people and saying, if you’re poor, if you’re mourning, these things that the world would look at and say, you’re struggling, so you’re not right with God.

And he says, no, no, you, blessed are you. And then that word for woe meant the opposite. It meant there was disfavor there.

He’s using them in an opposite sense of the way the culture would use them. So he’s taking their very ideas about what it meant to be right with God and flipping them upside down. Now what he’s telling them here is that God is not concerned about your wealth.

He’s not looking at your wealth. God is looking at the heart. And Jesus here is not setting up another standard of saying, well, if you’re poor, that’s a sign that you’re right with God.

Poverty doesn’t just mean you’re automatically right with God. Just like wealth doesn’t automatically mean you’re right with God. Jesus is flipping the standard so they’d understand we can be completely presentable from a human standpoint.

We can look like we’ve got everything together. We are rich. We are laughing.

We are well-fed. We are well-spoken up. We can be all of the things that the world would look at and say that person has got it all together, and we can still be alienated from a holy God.

By the same token, we can still suffer and struggle and be justified before Him. And I’ll help make this clear in just a minute, but He is not laying out here an alternate means for being right with God. That if you want to be right with God, just got to make sure you’re poor and hungry.

He’s not laying out an alternate plan of salvation here. He is showing them that God’s expectations are different from what they thought. And really to understand what it is He’s saying here, we’ve got to dig deeper into the context.

Because if we’re not careful, if we just read it what it looks like on the surface, we end up with a very critical theory, Marxist idea of what Jesus is saying here, where Jesus is dividing the world into the haves and the have-nots, the oppressed and the oppressors. That’s not what Jesus is doing. With everything we just read, there’s a very important phrase in here that brings all of this into context.

And we find it right there in verse 20 where it says, and turning his gaze toward his disciples. It changes the meaning of the passage when you understand he’s talking to his disciples. He’s not talking to the crowd.

The crowd is there. They happen to be there. And he’s talking in front of them.

He’s not hiding anything from them, but he’s talking to his disciples. He’s not talking to the hostile Pharisees who were no doubt there because the things that he is saying are also things that don’t apply to the Pharisees, the people who are hostile. When he says, for you to be spoken of evil, be ill-spoken of for my sake, the Pharisees were not going to be ill-spoken of for his sake because they weren’t going to walk with him.

Jesus is not talking to the crowd. He’s not talking to the Pharisees and trying to shame them. Jesus is talking to his disciples.

And now the way we use the word disciple now, it means somebody who’s a committed follower of Jesus Christ. In their day, it meant somebody who was a student. Disciple, at this point, doesn’t mean they have made a full commitment to Jesus. Now the apostles had those 12 that he had called out from among the disciples, but he is surrounded at this point by a big group of people who are just there to hear what he has to say and to learn from him, but they’re still very much on the fence about whether they’re going to follow him or not.

They’re just there to learn. And he’s talking to those people, the disciples. He’s talking to those people about what their level of commitment should be.

So when we understand who he’s talking to, it’s very clear that Jesus is not saying that God separates us according to what we have or don’t have. What God in is what we’re willing to give up. That’s the difference.

He’s not saying poor, good, rich, bad. He’s not doing the opposite of the Pharisees. Our relationship with God is not determined by what we have.

The direction of our walk with God is determined by what we’re willing to give up, because he’s talking to this group of people who were starting to follow him, and what he’s doing is he’s talking to them about the importance of total commitment. Jesus called his followers to total commitment. It says in verse 20, he’s turned his gaze toward the disciples.

And so he’s speaking to these people who some of them were willing to give up everything. Some of them weren’t willing to lose anything. And we see this at this stage of his ministry, that people come to Jesus and say, hey, I want to follow you.

And Jesus, knowing exactly what the idols are in each of their hearts, says, okay, you need to give this up. To the rich young ruler, he says, you need to go sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor. Is that the plan of salvation?

Do we earn our way into heaven by doing that? No. But he knew that’s what that man was worshiping.

And so he said, you’ve got to give that up. To other people, he said, you’ve got to walk away from your family. Now, does estranging yourself from your family, is that the plan of salvation?

No. But if that’s what’s going to keep you from following Jesus, that’s the idol that needs to be dealt with. And there were people in this crowd, there were people in this crowd who had idols that needed to be dealt with.

Just like those who said, well, let me go and bury my father first. Sounds like a reasonable request to us, but if you dig into the context, it sounds like his father wasn’t even dead yet. He’s saying, I need more time. I need an indefinite period of time, Jesus, and then when I get all my stuff straightened out, then I’ll come follow you.

And Jesus said, if you’re not willing to walk away from everything, you’re not worthy to follow me. He’s calling them to a total commitment. because some of them lived in fear of being poor.

Wait, if I go follow you, I may lose my livelihood. What happened to Matthew? How was Matthew making money?

Tax collecting. Was he always honest as the day is long? Probably not.

The Bible doesn’t indicate that he specifically was swindling people, but it doesn’t say he wasn’t, and that was kind of the presumption about tax collectors. He was making money. He walked away from it to follow Jesus.

How was Peter feeding himself and his family? He’s fishing. He walked away from that to follow Jesus.

The same Jesus who said, you know, the birds have nests and the foxes have holes to live in. The Son of Man has no place to lay his head. And there were people like Peter and like Matthew who were willing to walk away from all of that and say, if that’s what it takes to follow Jesus, we’ll come with you.

But there were other people trying to make the plan B of how they could kind of follow Jesus and still hold on to the other stuff. And so what he’s laying out here when he says, blessed are you if you’re hungry, if you’re poor, if you’re mourning, if you’re ill-spoken of. He’s talking about all the things that it might potentially cost somebody to follow Jesus.

I shouldn’t say all the things it might cost somebody, but he’s given a good example of the things that it might cost somebody to follow Jesus, and saying you’re blessed if you’re willing to give all those things up to follow Jesus. On the same token, on the other side, woe is you if you’re rich. Not because God’s judging you for having stuff, but because there were people sitting in that crowd who were not going to follow Jesus because they didn’t want to let go of that stuff.

He’s calling them to total commitment. And he’s calling them to trust him because he gives them promise after promise of the way Jesus rewards those who forsake all to follow him. Now, the faithful disciples, They were willing to walk away from things like wealth and power.

We see this in verse 20. And become poor in order to follow Jesus. And they were going to be rewarded.

Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. There were people in that crowd who had already made the decision that they were going to follow Jesus no matter what the cost. There were people who were going to make that decision. That I don’t care if it costs me my livelihood.

I don’t care if I become poor in the process. Jesus is worth following. They were willing to give that up.

does becoming poor make you right with God? No. But here he was calling them to be willing to give those things up, to walk away from those things, knowing that God could be trusted, knowing that Jesus would provide a reward for them.

Those who walked away from all the wealth and everything that they could want on this side of eternity could do so knowing that there’s an even greater reward on the other side that came from following Jesus. Faithful disciples were willing to forego even the most basic comforts, even suffering hunger for the sake of Jesus. And when we look at verse 21, he promises that they’ll be satisfied.

Now, satisfied here doesn’t just mean you got some food. You ever been to a restaurant and you’ve paid more than you probably should, and you’ve left out of there still being hungry? It’s just not right.

Especially you go someplace, you spend some money, and you’re wondering, is this the entree or the appetizer because it’s so small. You walk out of there still hungry. Technically, I guess you’ve had enough to eat according to somebody’s definition, but you’re still hungry.

That’s not what it’s describing here. That word means to be satisfied. It means to feed somebody until they don’t want anymore, can’t take anymore.

Kind of like how we are after Thanksgiving, if we don’t have a lot of self-discipline. That we may suffer hunger. We may suffer other kinds of deprivation in this life, If that’s what it takes for us to follow Jesus, he says, whatever you lose, you’ll be filled up with in his kingdom.

Those who hunger will be satisfied. He says, blessed are you who weep now because you’ll laugh. Faithful disciples wept because they suffered discouragement and they suffered loss for the sake of Jesus.

Now, to be clear, there’s always a cost involved in following Jesus. For us, the cost may be a little bit different. Very few of us are going to lose jobs and livelihood for following Jesus, although it does happen.

We hear stories about it in the media from time to time. Somebody stuck to their convictions and followed Jesus, and it cost them a job, or it cost them a contract. It costs something.

It does happen. For us, the costs may be different from what they face. We’re not being threatened with our lives most of the time, although there are believers in this world who are, but there’s always a cost. And just because the cost for us don’t look exactly like the cost for the people who were sitting there that day, doesn’t mean that not a cost. And the call is the same.

The call is the same to be willing to pay the cost and to be willing to give up what’s necessary to follow Jesus. But there were faithful disciples in that crowd who wept or would weep because they suffered discouragement and loss for the sake of Jesus. And sometimes we will suffer discouragement and loss for the sake of Jesus.

Sometimes it’s hard to be a follower of Jesus. Sometimes it’s costly in terms of social connections or personal relationships. there’s always a cost. But he said those who mourned would laugh because they’ll find joy in him.

And then we come to verse 22, and we find that faithful disciples were hated for his sake. For a lot of people, that’s the worst thing, that’s the worst threat there is, that people are going to hate you and ostracize you and insult you and all these things. And he’s saying that’s part of the cost here.

And sometimes that’s the great temptation to not be as vocal in following Jesus, or not be as faithful, or not as committed, or not as principled in following Jesus, because we’re worried about what the world will say about us. But to those people who gave up even their reputations for the sake of following Jesus, he told them that they would have reason to leap with joy. Some translations say something like just be joyful.

He’s talking here about being able to leap with joy. I’m trying to think of the last time I was that excited about anything. But they’d be able to leap with joy knowing that God’s servants have always been treated that way.

You look at the Old Testament prophets who had a direct word from God, and when they would go out and speak it, they would be treated that way. And in our mind, well, if I’m suffering or have a bad reputation, I must not be doing something right. Sometimes you can be doing everything right and still be ill-spoken of, because that’s how they treated the prophets.

That’s how they were going to treat the apostles. That’s how the world that grows increasingly hostile toward the things of God will treat us. But he says, despite suffering there, a reward waits in heaven.

In verse 23, what Jesus promises. Jesus promises that there will be a cost for following him, but the rewards he promises will more than make up for it. The promises he gives us are enough because Jesus is enough.

If we walk with him and are totally committed to him, we will lose things, but he will more than make up for what we lose. And then there’s the flip side of it, that we lose the things we choose over Jesus anyway. It’s like that egg we try to hold on to a little too tight and crack it.

We’re so determined that we don’t want to lose these things. We don’t want to lose our wealth. We don’t want to lose our provisions and being well-fed.

We don’t want to lose the things that make us happy in life. We don’t want to lose the reputation and the approval of others. But if we choose those things over Jesus, we’re going to lose them anyway in trying to hold on to them.

There were others in that crowd who would turn back. They’d be unwilling to sacrifice their riches. And he says in verse 24, that’s a sad thing for you because those riches that you’re enjoying now, that’s all the comfort you get.

Riches can make us happy for a little while, but they don’t bring the lasting joy that Jesus does. And eventually all of that stuff that we treasure here on earth, it just turns to dust anyway. The things that we’re holding on to and choosing over Jesus, we’ll eventually lose if we choose them over Jesus.

Those who would turn their back on him because they were unwilling to suffer hunger or deprivation, one day he said, you’re going to suffer those things anyway. Deciding not to follow Jesus does not mean that life will be perfect either. We’re going to suffer if we walk with Jesus.

We’re going to suffer in this world if we don’t walk with Jesus. It’s just a matter of whether we’ve got Jesus with us when we suffer or not. And those who turned their backs because they wanted to seek fulfillment would find sorrow.

We probably all know stories of people, maybe we’ve been these people, that said, no, I don’t want to walk with Jesus because there are these other things in my life that make me happy, and I’m going to pursue those. And I won’t give any specific examples because it’s the fifth Sunday, and we’ve got all the kids in here. But we know where those roads lead.

Those roads promise fulfillment, and they lead to sorrow, just like Jesus promised. And if we’re going to say, no, I’m not going to follow you, I’m not going to walk with you because I want to have the things that appeal to my flesh, eventually we’re going to lose that fulfillment as well. And he says in verse 26, to those who turn back in order to be respectable, in order to find the approval of the world, well, they might get that approval. They might never lose that approval. They might be celebrated by the world, but they’ll be celebrated just in the same way as the false prophets were.

And he’s making clear here that having the approval of man does not equate to having the approval of God. So when we study it in context, understanding who he’s talking to, it helps us see this is not God looking at it and being concerned about what you’ve got. It’s God being concerned with what you’re willing to lose.

And if we’re followers of Jesus, we still have a choice that’s placed before us. If we’re disciples, if we’re learning at Jesus’ feet, we still have a choice that’s placed in front of us just like those people did. Do we embrace Jesus and total commitment with all the costs, everything that is baked into that cake as far as what it’s going to cost us and the suffering it’s going to bring?

Or do we step away from that, turn our back on Jesus and think we’re exempt from suffering and I’m going to choose these things over Jesus not realizing that we lose those in the end anyway? This is very much a call for believers to get out of the middle, to say we’ve either got to follow Jesus or not. And it’s not that it’s encouraged to not follow Jesus, but it’s a recognition that there’s one of two choices.

And if we think we’re going to hold on to what we want by not following Jesus and not being totally committed, we’re going to lose those things anyway. And if we lose things to follow Jesus, he more than makes up for those anyway. And it led my mind back to a famous quote by a missionary named Jim Elliott.

Some of you have heard his story. He was committed to Jesus Christ to the point that he was willing to give up anything and lost his life in the jungles of Ecuador, intending to take the gospel to native people. And eventually that many people, including the ones who killed him, were converted when his wife went back and continued to work with them.

But this man who gave his life back in the 1950s for the cause of Christ, famously said, he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. That’s the very thing that Jesus is talking about here. that disciples have a choice to give up what we cannot keep in order to gain what we cannot lose.

If you’re a believer in Jesus already this morning, that’s the call to you. It’s the call to each of us, the call to total commitment. Not that we automatically lose everything when we follow Jesus.

You probably won’t lose everything automatically when you decide to become fully committed to Jesus. But you have to be willing to lose whatever it takes to go where he calls you to go and do what he calls you to do.

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