Luke 9:21-26 - Jesus Description of Discipleship

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: [email protected]  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!