Welcome to session three of our study, Kingdom Disciples, Heaven's Representatives on Earth. In this session, we're going to study the commitment of discipleship because there's a lot of confusion concerning the requirements for salvation. to go to heaven and the requirements for discipleship to bring heaven to earth.
While the two are connected, they're not identical. Going to heaven, being converted, is faith alone and Christ alone and his promise of eternal life. to all those who trust him for it.
But the commitment of discipleship to deny yourself and take up your cross and follow him is the requirement God makes to bring heaven down to history, to your life experience. And when you understand why God asked for that commitment and what the benefits are of that commitment, in spite of the challenges with that commitment, I think you'll be motivated to make that commitment. especially when you discover how your confession of Christ will make all the difference in the world.
In schools you can take courses for credit. Credit means that it's been recognized you've taken the course, you've done the work, and you get the grade. And that's how we progress through our educational system. But it is also possible in college to audit courses.
Now, a person who audits a course, what they're saying is, I want the information without the requirements. I don't want to take any tests. I don't want to do any homework.
I don't want to have to read any books. But I like the subject matter, and therefore I want to get the information without any of the requirements of the responsibility. A lot of Christians audit church. They want the information, so they'll go listen to the sermons on my radio broadcast. They want the data.
But without the requirement. They want the information, but without the cost in order to get the grade and recognition for their involvement and their investment. When you come to Jesus Christ, For the forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life, what we typically refer to as salvation, being born again, being converted, the Bible makes it clear that that is free.
we're justified freely by his grace. Romans 3 says, by grace are you saved, through faith, not of your works. It is the gift of God, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, so that no man can boast. Salvation is free.
And to put something in front of it or to require something after it in order to be converted is to confuse the gospel message. A person is saved for eternity by... faith alone, in Christ alone, and is promised to give eternal life to all who trust in him alone for it. It's free. But when the Bible talks about discipleship, it talks about a cost.
It talks about a price to be paid. You can't audit being a disciple. That incurs responsibility. That incurs your involvement. You're saved because of what Christ did, but you're a disciple because you cooperate with Christ by what you do.
You're saved by faith. apart from works. Paul makes that clear in Romans 4. But you become a disciple by a faith that does work. James 2. Many people get confused about that.
They read James 2 where James says faith without works is dead. And they think they're talking about becoming a Christian. James says, my brethren. He's talking to people already saved. What James is saying is that faith, without that which should accompany it, that is the work, will keep...
Keep your faith dormant or dead. Your faith won't work. Your Christianity won't work for you.
In chapter 1 of James, verses 19 to 21, he says, my beloved brethren, because he's talking to Christians, receive the word implanted, which is able to save your soul. But if you're already a brethren, you're already saved. He's not talking about going to heaven.
He says the word is already in you. The word saved means to be delivered. When you're not saved, delivered from eternal separation from God.
But when you are saved, means God delivering you in history. And so faith without works is dead refers to your discipleship, not to your eternal salvation. And that's where a lot of people confuse passages that that are really talking about discipleship and they make it talking about salvation.
So you're confused about what the gospel is when you talk to a non-believer and you make requirements that the gospel does not make. That's an important distinction in understanding kingdom disciples. Because if you had to do... all of these things that God requires for you to be a disciple, then you could never know you were saved at the moment you got saved because you haven't had time yet to do all these things.
Okay. So the first thing is to be clear that discipleship, while connected to conversion, being born again in salvation, has a distinction. One is free. One has a cost to it. He talks about this cost, this commitment, if you will, in Luke 14. Jesus says in verse 26 these words, If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father or mother, wife, children, brothers and sisters, yea, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. He's not saying they can't get saved. We don't tell non-Christians you gotta hate your mother, brother, sister.
hate your own life to get saved to go to heaven. No, he's talking about discipleship. Cannot be my disciple. Because discipleship requires a commitment.
When you go into the army, Navy, Marines, Air Force. You go in for free. But once you're in, it requires a commitment.
There's no price to get in. But there is a price to fully be prepared for what you've gotten into. So it is with discipleship and commitment.
God now saves you and leaves you on earth, doesn't take you to heaven the moment you're converted, because you are now his official representative on earth like an ambassador is a representative in another land on behalf of our nation. to represent the authority of the kingdom of heaven amidst the chaos and confusion of men. And so he says, going back to the concept of first, there must be a decision. to be made or you can't be part of this elite group called disciples. You can be a citizen of heaven but not a representative official of heaven because you're not willing to be fully committed.
Your love for Jesus Christ and commitment to him, he says, must transcend your commitment and love for every other relationship in your life. He names them. Father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, that's your whole family.
We explained Adam made a commitment to family over God and the price had to be paid for the consequences of sin. When he says you are to hate them, when God commands people to love their children and love their mates, what does he mean? He means the...
The gap between love for him and love for them will often feel like hate when you have to choose him over them. There's many a Christian who has been rejected by family because of their faith. Now we don't feel that as much in America where there's been a Christian veneer over the culture but you go to some cultures and you will see people being put out of homes you go to some states and you'll find people getting physically abused and it even costing them their life when they go public for Jesus Christ As long as they're in their secret closet, nobody knows that they're saved but them. But once their decisions, he's not talking about emotions, he's talking about decisions. Because biblical love is a decision first, whether or not it's a...
accompanied by an emotion. So he says your decisions must trump the decisions of other people in your life when they conflict with them. That's why Jesus says in Matthew 10 that he brought a sword because he knew that when you choose him over other people, particularly people you care about, it can split things.
It can split things. So being a disciple is no small thing. but it comes with whopping reward because now you have access to authority that you did not previously have even though you are a believer he says your decisions must trump your relationships when they contradict me so what do you need to do first of all he says you come to him you come to him so you want to be saved you want to go to heaven but now you at the commitment and the cost level level.
First of all, your decisions related to your human relationships. Then he says you must carry your cross. Luke 9.23 says you must carry your cross daily.
So obviously you can't physically die daily, so he's not talking about physical death. You remember when Jesus Christ was on his way to Calvary, he carried the crossbar of his cross. They were proclaiming him to be guilty of a crime against Caesar, declaring he was a king. Treason. That's why Pilate had written there the accusation, King of the Jews.
He's declaring himself to be his own king. He's carrying his cross. That carrying of the cross led to a rejection by the Jewish people.
Palm Sunday, they're saying, Hosanna. Next Friday, they're saying, crucify him. Between Palm Sunday and next Friday was carrying a cross. That public display shifted sentiment about him.
Along with the influence of the leaders of that day. If you want to be a disciple, a kingdom disciple with authority being transferred to you, you must be willing to carry, it says, your own cross. Now, not his cross. Only he could carry his cross, paying for the sins of the whole world. But your cross.
Now, what is your cross? Your cross, as a kingdom disciple, is the price tag that comes with your public identification with him. Once you publicly identify with him, you're no longer a secret Asian Christian. You're no longer a spiritual CIA representative.
You're no longer a covert operative. Everybody else is coming out the closet. You decide to come out too.
You now become a public representative. That will produce a reaction. And all of it is not positive.
The more secular our culture becomes, the more postmodern it becomes. The more Christianity is rejected, is assaulted, is dismissed, you hear it in the media, it's ridiculed, prayer is being put out and pushed to the side. When you take your stand as a representative of Jesus Christ, taking it appropriately, taking it lovingly, but taking it clearly, you now are carrying a cross. Because you've now been identified with Jesus Christ. That starts with the baptism.
But now you are known as a Christian. So the question of a disciple is, on your job, if you were accused of being a visible, verbal follower of Christ, would you be found innocent of all charges? Or would they say you are guilty?
Because it is clear you're a Christian. They don't have to guess. They don't have to debate.
You've made it clear that your stand is with Jesus Christ. To carry your cross is to carry the identification of who you are. They asked me to come pray at the City Hall meeting some years ago by the mayor to open up the council meeting. So I told them I'd be glad to come and pray.
Then I got a letter back they said when you pray, when you pray please don't mention Jesus Christ. Please don't mention Jesus Christ because we have people of different religious backgrounds and we don't want to offend anybody. Keep it generic. Okay well I went down there and they introduced me I said let us pray. Now I said Heavenly Father the council has invited me to pray to you today.
I can only assume that they want me to communicate and reach you with this prayer. And you have already declared that there is only one mediator between God and man, and that is the man Christ Jesus. So in order for me to reach you with what they've asked me to do, I come to you in his name.
First of all, I thank you for giving the city council life, because without life, they could not represent us. And according to your word, everything that was created was created by Christ Jesus. So I thank Jesus Christ.
for them being able to be here today. I thank you for creating government because government was created by you according to what you told the Apostle Paul who was converted by Jesus on the Damascus Road. If there's anyone here who does not know your son, the Lord Jesus Christ, I pray that you would make the good news of the gospel of forgiveness of sins clear to them.
them. In Jesus'name, amen. So the statement is clear.
If you don't want to hear about Jesus, don't invite me. To be a kingdom disciple means that you wisely, lovingly, and appropriately make it clear that you are a Christian, and a Christian is not a person who merely believes in God. Devil believes in God.
I mean, you know, people who hate Jesus believe in God. No! All authority is given to him in heaven and on earth.
It is your willingness to be connected with Jesus that makes you a disciple. And every day you put on this crossbar at home, at work, in community, and you make it inextricably clear, appropriately, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. Because sometimes you need disciple to even explain Christian because everybody thinks they're Christian. And that is...
has become a generic term. A visible, verbal follower of Christ and a kingdom disciple at that. That is, who is progressively learning to live all of life under the lordship of Jesus Christ. Now, what this means is that there must be willingness on your part and mine to publicly confess him.
We're all familiar with Romans 10 9. and ten. He says if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead you'll be saved. That scripture about salvation in Romans that we regularly use.
Well, let me give you a thought that may be a little different than you've had about that verse. According to that verse, you must do two things to be saved. Confess with your mouth and believe in your heart. The problem is, when the Bible tells you what you must do to be saved, it tells you you must do one thing to be saved. Paul told the Philippian jailer in Acts 16, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.
He never mentions confess. All through the book of John, these things are written that you might believe that he is the son of God, that you might have life in his name in chapter 20. of Saint John. In other words, confession is not made a condition of salvation. Only faith in Jesus Christ is made a condition of being born again, being saved. I'd like to suggest to you that when Paul says in Romans 10, 9 about conversion, he's not talking about how to get to heaven.
The word saved means to be delivered. The Bible uses the word saved in three different tenses. Salvation past from the penalty of sin, being born again converted.
Salvation future from the presence of sin. when we get to heaven, glorification. But the Bible regularly uses saved from the power of sin, sanctification. Like James chapter 1. Receive the word and plan it, which is able to save your soul, even though you're already believers, you're already my beloved brethren. I'd like to suggest that confession is related to your deliverance in history, not your deliverance in eternity.
That's why the following verse says, when you believe in your heart, you receive... righteousness just by believing you're already saved he goes on in Romans 10 9 and 10 says but with the mouth confession with your public declaration and identification deliverance comes so that whoever, going down to verse 13, calls on the name of the Lord will be saved or delivered. But when you look at the phrase throughout the New Testament of calling on the name of the Lord, that's not sinners calling on the name of the Lord, those are Christians calling on the name of the Lord. They're calling for God to intervene in a situation on earth. So what he is saying is if you will identify with me, not God generic, not even the whole...
Holy Spirit, but me, the second member of the Trinity, because I will be with you always, even until the end of the earth. In fact, he writes the word I twice in Matthew 28, I even I. It's called the ego-I-me construction. It's the intensification of I.
I, the second member of the Trinity, because I've been the one given all the authority, I will be with you always. And when you publicly identify with me, then you are now a kingdom representative officially. I am now comfortable with. with your representation of me, because you don't forget me when it's convenient to do so.
You don't forget me when you leave church. You identify with me wherever you go. As a result, I will be your deliverer in history.
I will save or rescue. Now, that happens in a lot of different ways. Sometimes he rescues us from things. Sometimes he rescues us out of things.
Sometimes he changes us in things. But all of those are forms of rescue that God... brings about because you are not only a Christian going to heaven, you're a kingdom disciple who has heaven joining you on earth.
And if people understood that they get a greater power and presence or experience of Jesus, they have all of Jesus, but the experience of Jesus operating when they become a kingdom disciple, then they will experience God at a whole other level. A great illustration of this is Matthew. 16. In Matthew chapter 16, Peter has been congratulated by Jesus because he said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God. He has demonstrated faith in Jesus. But then Jesus is explaining, in verse 21, how he's got to go to Jerusalem, how he's got to suffer, and how he's got to die and rise on the third day.
He's explaining that. But my friend Peter shows up. Peter wore peppermint socks, the way he loved to keep his foot in his mouth.
And on this occasion... Peter took Jesus aside. He said, come here, come here, I got to talk to you because you are confused.
And began to rebuke him. So Peter is telling Jesus, Jesus is wrong. And he's telling him in strong language, he rebukes him.
You oughtn't be saying that. You oughtn't be talking like that. Not only does he rebuke Jesus, he rebukes Jesus in the name of God. He says, God forbid it. God, I'm rebuking you in God's name.
It's like rebuking somebody else in Jesus'name. I'm rebuking you in your daddy's name. This shall never happen to you.
What you just said is wrong. Now, calling Jesus a liar or uninformed, probably not a good thing. He says you're totally wrong.
Jesus says to Peter, who's already saved, get behind me, devil. Get behind me, Satan. You are a stumbling block.
A stumbling block is something that gets in the way. You are a stumbling block to me for... You are not setting your mind on God's interest, but man's.
You know the thing about this? It's Peter meant well. Peter was trying to help Jesus out. while working for the devil and not knowing it. And when Peter was working for the devil, not knowing he was working for the devil because his mind disagreed with Jesus, you set your mind on man's thinking.
So watch this. When you think like man that disagrees with Jesus, you just joined the devil. So it isn't just that you disagreeing with other folk.
You just now assisted hell in blocking heaven. And how... many times do we and do Christians get in God's way?
Stumbling block. Meaning well, but disagreeing with God. He says, your mind is in the wrong place. You are a stumbling block.
And right after that, guess what he says? Verse 24, if anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. The same commitment to discipleship.
So what am I saying? I'm saying, if you want to see. more of heaven in history, once you become converted, you must now go public, lovingly or appropriately, and commit.
All of you, your relationships, your career, your world. We'll talk more about this in our following sessions to come. But you must go all the way in fully being committed to Jesus Christ on all levels.
So that when that commitment comes, you will see what it's like to be all in. You know... If you are the kind of football fan that I am, or that you know other people to be, you know what it looks like when a football fan is all in. In every football game, there's only 17 minutes of contact. In other words, actual hitting is only 17 minutes.
That 17 minutes of contact is part of a one-hour game. Every football game is one hour in length, but it's only 17 minutes in contact. But that one-hour game is part of a three-hour experience. If you watch football, you're going to be sitting there for three hours to watch one hour to see 17 minutes. If you go to the game, that's two more hours, fighting through traffic, parking, walking to the stadium.
So you will have spent five hours to sit for three hours to see one hour to watch 17 minutes but then you got to go home that's a couple more hours working through the parking lot going through the traffic to get back home so now you've spent seven hours to sit for three hours to look at one hour in order to see 17 minutes of football but not only that when you get home folk be turning on nfl network sports center espn to watch clips of what they just spent seven hours to see 17 minutes but then at work the next day they're going to talk about what happened at the game yesterday they're going to review the stats fantasy football and even talk about what's coming up next week. Now if you can spend all of that time. and even pay your tithes to get in it if you can spend all of that time for 17 minutes of contact because you believe your team is worthy of that commitment i just want to ask what has your team done for you lately but for the king of kings and lord of lords substitute for our sins risen from the dead i'm saying to you if you ever grab hold of representing him like you represent your favorite team you'll be representing something who can do a lot for you in time like he's done for you in eternity