The Cost of Discipleship

Transcript

Welcome to this week’s sermon from Trinity Church in Portland, Oregon. We hope this message inspires you, roots you down deep into the Lord, into His Word, and may His Spirit be your guide as you enjoy this teaching. Thanks for joining us. Here’s the message. This morning’s passage comes from Mark 8. Mark 8

through 9. And calling the crowd to Him with His disciples, He said to them, If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for My sake and the Gospels will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and of My words, in this adulterous and sinful generation of him

will the Son of Man also be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels. And He said to them, Truly I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power. This Trinity Church is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Well, we live in the epicenter of the world’s fastest growing religion. And just to be clear, this religion is not Christianity. It is a religion, however, that has its own pastors. It has its own religious authority. It has its own creed. It has its own doctrine. It even has its own Ten Commandments. In fact, just listen to this new religion’s Ten Commandments. Commandment number one, you shall do you. Commandment two, you shall follow your heart. Commandment three, you shall be true to thyself.

Commandment four, you shall not be intolerant of your neighbor’s views. Commandment five, you shall cancel thy neighbor’s intolerant views. Commandment six, you shall not kill unless, of course, it’s in your own body. Commandment seven, you shall define your own authority and identity. Commandment eight, you shall define your own truth. Commandment nine, you shall do what makes you most happy. And then finally, the greatest of these commandments, you shall love yourself above all other gods. This, brothers and sisters, is the religion of self-sovereignty. It is the religion of the exalted self where the chief end of humanity is to enjoy yourself and live however you want to live. This religion is the greatest religion of our city and world right now. And it is perhaps the most deceptive and satanic religion because it is the religion that places self at the center of everything. It is the religion that functionally says, you are your own god, so you make the rules.

The Ancient Religion of Self

Now, to be clear, this is not a new religion. Though it is growing and becoming increasingly popular, this is an ancient religion, a religion that’s been around since the dawn of humanity. In fact, this religion started with the first humans in the Garden of Eden who chose to do their own thing because they wanted to be their own god. So this ancient religion of self-sovereignty that started in the Garden has spread throughout all of human history. Now, most people wouldn’t define this self-sovereignty as a religion. In fact, most contemporary thinkers would simply call this expressive individualism. But make no mistake, it is a religion, and it’s the dominant religion in our modern and self-oriented world. Listen to how author and thinker Trevin Wax defines this expressive individualism. He says, in the expressivist framework, anything that gets in the way of self-exaltation or self-fulfillment is a problem.

This means that any universal or binding ethic, morals that are absolute, truths that are transcendent in our culture, they all fall down before the idol of the mighty me. God may still be present, but it is me on the throne. Mark Sayers, in his book entitled Disappearing Church, says it like this. What we are experiencing is not an eradication of God from the Western mind, but rather the enthroning of self as the greatest authority. So it’s most certainly a religion. And what’s most deceptive about this religion is that the expressive individualist would claim to be an irreligious person. In fact, some of these people would profess to hate God and hate religion, but they worship. They built a doctrine. They recite creeds. They have their own commandments. They follow after a God. In fact, they live for their God. Their God just happens to be self.

And this is nothing new. Humans have always had an issue with placing themselves at the center of the universe to be like God. But this is not what humans were made for. Though we were made for worship, we were not made to worship ourselves. We were not made to be the center of the universe. And despite how most humans pursue this self-exalting and self-fulfilling as the path of human flourishing, it never truly leads to a flourishing life. In fact, it leads to the opposite. It leads to meaninglessness, emptiness, and eventual death. But what I want to say to you this morning is that there’s a better way. There’s a better God to follow after, one that ultimately leads to a better life. And this is precisely what Jesus is addressing in our text this morning. And my hope for us this morning as we unpack this passage is that we would see plainly and clearly as followers of Jesus that though he is the sovereign God and to follow him, it is extremely costly, it’s also liberating and fulfilling.

The Conditional Call

And it’s far better to follow after this sovereign God than to follow after our sovereign self that leads to death. So to help us move through our passage this morning, I’ve broken it down into four sections. The conditional call, the paradoxical path, the eternal economics, and finally the confident confession. Now last week in our text, Jesus plainly laid out for his disciples that despite their preconceived ideas concerning this Messiah, what the Messiah has actually come to do is to suffer, to be rejected, to be killed, and to be raised. And so this new understanding comes with huge implications for those who would follow after this Jesus. This is exactly what our passage is about this morning, the implications of following Jesus. Or better yet, the cost of discipleship. Now our text this morning is not so much chronological, meaning it’s not like what we’re looking at this morning happened immediately following after what we saw last week in terms of a hard timeline.

But instead what you have is Mark placing this narrative here in his gospel strategically and thematically. Again, this is Mark’s creativity. He is making this connection for us that if the path of Jesus was marked by suffering, rejection, and the laying down of life, and if we are to be disciples of Jesus, if we’re to be imitators of this Jesus, then we must also suffer, be rejected, and even lay down our lives. Now this will vary from follower to follower. Not every situation will look the same. Not every Christian receives an equal portion of suffering and rejection. But nonetheless, if you profess to follow this Jesus, then your response to this call will come with a cost. And it will come with conditions. And we see that in verse 34 with the conditional call. And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Now the first thing to see right out of the gate is that Jesus has moved away from this private conversation that we saw last week with his disciples and has now turned his attention to the crowd. He’s calling everyone present, including the disciples, to understand the conditions of following Jesus. And this is extremely important for us to understand because this means that the conditions Jesus will give are not exclusive to the disciples. These conditions are not relegated to people in full-time ministry, you know, the radical zealous type. It’s not just for pastors. It’s for everyone. This is why Jesus says, if anyone will come after me. And just to be clear, that word anyone in the original language, it means anyone. Okay, so no difference there. So the condition is not just for the disciples and the apostles. It’s for you. It’s for me. It’s for anyone who would follow after Jesus.

And the fact that Jesus says, if anyone is also important because it means that the invitation is inclusive. It’s an open invitation. Anyone can follow Jesus. Anyone. So long as they understand the terms and conditions of the invitation. And here Jesus gives his disciples and anyone else who would follow after him three conditions. Now, these three conditions are what’s known as imperatives, meaning they’re necessary conditions. If your confession is Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, the son of God. And if you want to follow after him, then you must do these things. Just like we saw last week with Jesus when he said he must suffer. He must be rejected, must be killed, and must rise. So also we who follow Jesus must do these three things. It’s not optional. And before we dive into these three conditions, it’s important to stress a few things concerning the gospel.

Just so that there’s no misunderstanding. The gospel is free. It’s free. Salvation and forgiveness from your sins is free. It doesn’t cost you anything. It’s a gift from God. You don’t do anything to earn it. You don’t put in overtime on spiritual things to pay for it. You come empty-handed, needy, and desperate. And he gives you everything you need to be saved from your sins. He does the work. The scripture is clear on this. Ephesians 2 verses 8 and 9 says,

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not of your own doing. It is a gift of God. Not a result of works so that no one may boast

— Ephesians 2

(ESV)

. So the gospel is free. When a person comes to Jesus seeking forgiveness, trusting in him alone for salvation, that person doesn’t do any work to get it. And you see, this is what makes the gospel of Jesus so beautiful.

This is what makes Christianity distinct and separate from all other religions. Because it’s the only religion where you don’t have to work to get to God. It’s the only religion where God does all the work to bring you to himself. And listen, if you’re here this morning and you’re not a Christian, if you don’t hear anything else from me this morning, hear this. You don’t have to do any religious work to become a Christian. You don’t. You don’t have to work off your spiritual debt to earn salvation. You don’t have to do some kind of karma to balance the scales of your sin. Jesus has done everything necessary to pay the debt for your sin. To clean you from all your unrighteousness. You just need to trust and believe in this Jesus. And you can do that this morning. Ask him to save you from your sins.

And he’ll do it. His love and his forgiveness is a free gift. But I want to be clear this morning. That all who accept this free gift of salvation must recognize that there is a cost to following after Jesus. So you see that distinction there. Receiving Jesus is free. Following Jesus will cost you everything. So again, you don’t obey to get salvation. You obey because you’ve received salvation. It’s responsive. The gospel is unconditional. Following Jesus comes with conditions. You respond to Christ’s conditions because you have been unconditionally and freely. Because you’ve been unconditionally saved. Freely received Christ. Now, what are these three conditions? Jesus lays it out clearly and plainly. He begins first by saying, if you want to come after me. If you want to follow me. You must deny yourself. Now, to be clear. This particular condition is not Jesus calling us to give up things.

It’s not like meat or coffee that you give up as some sort of spiritual exercise. It’s not like giving up carbs because you’re self-disciplined. Though those things might be good things to give up. That’s not what Jesus is calling us to do here. This particular condition, Jesus is not calling you to give up some things. He’s calling you to give up someone. And that someone is you. And you see the reason why Jesus starts with this condition is because it stands in direct contradiction to the religion of self. Jesus says this because it’s impossible to follow the religion of self and to follow Jesus at the same time. They are mutually exclusive. One must have preeminence. One must be the priority. If you live for yourself, then ultimately you will deny Jesus. But if you live for Jesus, then you must deny yourself. Again, it’s mutually exclusive.

Jesus is saying, if you intend to be a disciple of mine, then you must relinquish your self-governing worldview. You must relinquish your personal ambition. You must set aside your human autonomy and your personal desires. To deny yourself means to remove yourself from the center of your own universe. Now listen, this is not a small thing. This is exceedingly challenging. Because since birth, we’ve been seeking to be the center of our own universe. And it’s especially hard in the world that we live in. Because the culture that we live in is constantly telling us to be the center of our own world. We’re being programmed every single day to exalt ourselves over anyone else. I mean, the world says, treat yourself. It says, make a name for yourself. Do what makes you happy. Live how you want to live. The world is yours. Be who you want to be.

If it feels good, then do what you want to do. The world says, indulge yourself. Jesus says, deny yourself. Deny your values, your plans, your personal preferences, your success, your personal agenda. All of these things must be laid down if, and there’s the condition if, they stand between Christ and his ways, his values, his plans, and his agendas. Listen, all those things might very well be good things. But if they become God things, if they become preeminent in your life, then God is calling you to lay them aside. Christ is calling Christians, followers of Jesus, to abandon our self-wills in a radical pursuit of the will of God. And you see the whole aim of this condition. At the end of the day, what this condition is pushing us to is lordship. It’s to prioritize him as the sovereign ruler over your life. Not to prioritize your personal lordship over your own life.

It’s to dethrone yourself from your own heart and enthrone Christ on your heart. Can I ask you this morning, dear follower of Jesus? Are you making a practice of denying yourself? Is Jesus the lord of your life? Or are you the lord of your life? If you have an issue with denying yourself, one of the most practical ways for you to identify if you have an issue with denying yourself, is that when you’re confronted with life decisions, what is your response? Is your first response to say, what am I going to get out of this situation? Is your knee-jerk response to say, what’s in it for me? How does this benefit me? If that’s the way that you think, if that’s the first thing that comes to your mind, then you’re most certainly not denying yourself. But if your initial response is, will this be pleasing to God?

Will this conform me into God’s pattern? Will this decision help me grow in Christ-likeness? Will this decision enable me to be a better Christian? Will it help me to love God and his people better if I make this decision? If that’s your response, then praise be to God. You’re likely denying yourself. To deny yourself is a practical way of making God the lord of your life. And that’s exactly what the Lord is after with this condition, lordship. Now the second condition Jesus gives us is that we must pick up our cross. Now you have to remember that at this particular point with the disciples and the crowd, they would not have a full understanding of the cross. They wouldn’t have this image in their mind of Jesus on a cross dying for the sins of the world. Their only framework of a cross would be this Roman instrument of shame and execution.

So why then does Jesus use this as a point of reference? Why does Jesus say pick up your cross as a condition to the crowd and the disciples if they don’t understand the greater spiritual significance of the cross? Well here’s why. In the Roman world when a criminal was convicted of a crime that was worthy enough to be executed, then that criminal would have to pick up his cross. And not only would that cross be exceedingly heavy, it would be painful and challenging to carry this cross. This walk up to the place of execution would also be a walk of shame and humiliation. The watching world would all look at this criminal and they would mock this one carrying his cross. Look at this criminal. Look at how dirty this person is. And you see this is what Jesus was emphasizing here. That’s not just the walk of shame, but there was also this execution part.

When a criminal would carry this cross to the place of his execution, there would be the greatest pain and the greatest shame. Until eventually that person would die. So that’s what Jesus is emphasizing here. Jesus is stressing that the Christian life is to be a procession of pain and suffering and humiliation. It’s a march of mockery and sometimes even death. Now I don’t think that Jesus was primarily emphasizing death here as the condition. Though it might be the case for some people. I think Jesus here is speaking more figuratively about the cross. And the reason why I think this is the case is because in Luke’s account, in Luke 9 chapter 23, it says,

So if Jesus’ literal condition was physical death, how does one physically die daily? So I think it’s figurative here. To pick up your cross daily here means every day you’re going to be confronted with pain and hardships because of what you believe. You’re going to face shame. You’re going to be socially ostracized. You’re going to be ridiculed. You’ll face persecution. You might lose your job. You could lose friendships or even family. And you may, though it’s unlikely, living in America right now. You might, like the martyrs of the faith, die as a direct result of your faith and trust in Jesus. And you see the condition here, it piggybacks off the first condition. Jesus is saying you must deny yourself daily even to the point of pain, humiliation, and mockery. And sometimes denying yourself might literally mean losing your life for Christ. And then lastly, Jesus says the condition to follow him is that you must follow him.

I know that sounds redundant, and that’s because it is. I think this is done this way for emphasis. Jesus says this to emphasize that if you want to follow him, then he must be the leader of your life. Jesus says you must follow me because our natural response, our natural tendencies, is to follow our heart. To follow our dreams. To follow our passions and our pleasures. To follow the path of least resistance. To follow the money. To follow our culture. To follow what is popular. To follow our friends or our politicians. To follow our news feeds. To follow what is in our best interest. To follow what most advances our platforms, our power, our influence, and our success. But all of these things will ultimately lead us into the darkness. None of these things can save you, and none of them can lead you into the light.

So Jesus says if you want to be my disciple, then it’s vital for you to forsake all the other things that are leading you and guiding you into the darkness and follow me into loyalty and obedience. And I will carry you into the light. John 8, 12, Jesus said, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. Jesus must dictate and determine what we do and where we go. Not our hearts. Not our desires. Not our sexuality. Not our comfort. Not our fears. Not the media. Not the world. Jesus must be king. He must be the leader. And the reason Jesus doubles this condition or greatly emphasizes this, because one of our biggest problems is that we all want to be our own king. We all want to sit on our own throne, and we all want to follow ourself.

The Paradoxical Path

But Jesus says, you’re not the king. I’m the king. And you must follow me in a self-denying, cross-bearing loyalty to me and my leadership. You’ve got to follow me. I’m leading. And then Jesus gives us the rationale for these conditions, and we see that in verse 35 with the paradoxical path. For whoever would save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. What Jesus is saying here is both radical and paradoxical. Now, what is a paradox? Well, it’s a statement that seems on the surface to be a contradiction. It seems like it doesn’t make sense, but it’s actually true. This statement here, it’s a bit of wordplay, and this is one of the things I love about Mark. It’s stated this way to creatively drive the consequence or the result of this self-denying, cross-bearing following of Jesus.

Now, just to help you better understand this verse here. Notice that the words save, lose, and life are listed twice. Now, the reason these words are listed twice is because this verse is broken into two parts. The first part of the verse is negative. The second part of the verse is positive. So an easy way to render this verse is to break them apart and then to break it down like this. Now, if you’re the note-taking type, you might want to make some little notations in your Bible here or on your phone, whatever it is that you do. So the first part of the verse, which is the negative part, says, For whoever would negatively save or preserve his physical life will negatively lose their eternal life. And the second part of the verse, which is positive, says, But, so you know this is in contrast to the negative,

Whoever positively loses or sacrifices his physical life will positively save or preserve their eternal life. So Jesus is saying here that if you hold fast to your own life, the physical life, the things that are fleeting in this world, If you live in such a way to preserve all that this world has to offer, then you will lose everything in the world to come. But if, and there’s a condition here, if you give up the physical life, If you give up all that this world has to offer, all of the fleeting things of this world, then you will gain everything in the world to come. Now, there’s another condition at the end of this verse. There are specific reasons for you to give up your life. It’s not generic. So you don’t lose your life or sacrifice for just anything to get eternal life. There have been countless men and women who have given up their lives for good things, for noble things.

But dying for good and noble things is not what Jesus is asking us to do in this passage. Jesus says, whoever loses his life, and here’s the condition, for my sake and for the gospel sake will save it. When Jesus says, for my sake, what he’s speaking about here is loyalty, allegiance to him as Lord of all. And when Jesus says, my gospel, he’s speaking about his message and his kingdom. And so really what Jesus is driving at here is this. You can lose your life for me and for my gospel, and you can have certainty that you will not lose in the life to come. And the truth is. That the life to come is exceedingly more valuable. And he shows us this in verses 36 and 37 with the eternal economics. He says, for what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?

For what can a man give in return for his soul? Here, Jesus asks two rhetorical questions because the answer is so incredibly obvious. If you understand these eternal economics. Jesus is helping us to understand the value, and that’s why he uses economic language here. Just look. What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? These two verses here are literally calling us to count the cost. What I mean by count the cost is to quantify. Take an inventory of the profits and the losses. To itemize the damages and the benefits. Like an accountant, like Chase, meticulously looking over a balance sheet, looking at the negative and the positive. Jesus calls us to consider the insignificance of the physical life. This fallen and fleeting world. And to consider the positive value, the weight of a soul that is fixed on the eternal world to come.

Now, Jesus here uses a bit of hyperbole when he says, what will you profit if you gain the whole world? I mean, obviously, no man, no woman can gain the whole world. That’s not humanly possible. But what Jesus is driving at with this hyperbole here is that even if you were to somehow do the impossible. And gain all of the riches, all of the benefits, all of the resources that this world has to offer. Billionaire budgets that help you build a rocket ship and dine over the western hemisphere of the world. Even if you had all of that. Based on losing your soul, would it be worth it? Would it be worth it to give up your inheritance? Is forfeiting your soul worth the riches of this world? Is it worth all the power and influence of this world? Is it worth the pleasures of this world if you lose your soul in the process?

If you think it is, it’s because you don’t understand the surpassing worth and value of the eternal soul. It’s because you don’t got the economics of eternity right. I know that’s a double negative, I did that on purpose. It’s because you have not rightly assessed the value of the resplendent beauty of our God and our eternal inheritance. And I’m convinced that most of us, we prize what is temporary and insignificant. Because we don’t sit long enough to ponder and to consider what actually awaits us in the world to come. We’ve not considered the value of our own soul. See these questions are framed by Jesus to remind us that the world is fading away. It’s in the lost category. And so to hold fast, to hold tightly to the things of this world is to lose. Because it’s quickly depreciating. In fact to invest in this world would be to make an investment in ashes.

But the world that is to come sits in the positive category. And it’s growing in value. In fact the more we look at our world, the more we see how this world is depreciating, the more valuable the eternal becomes. The world is increasingly becoming more and more evil. But the heaven that awaits us will be a place with no more fear. No more sickness. No more anxiety. No more suffering. No more longing. No more murder. No more oppression. No more abuse. No more trauma. No more exploitation. No more temptation. No more sin. No more death. And no more evil. And listen, even when all those things are considered, even when you quantify all those things, they pale in comparison to that which is most valuable in the world to come. And that is the God who occupies the world to come. You see brothers and sisters, part of our problem is that we don’t talk about this reality.

We don’t. We don’t talk about this. We don’t talk about what lies before us until we’re lying on our deathbed. And so what happens is that we watch our news feeds, and we scroll through our social feeds, and we can see clearly that this world is fading and falling apart. It’s a dark world, and what do we do? We become fearful. We become depressed. We become anxious. Or we try to numb ourselves to escape the reality that this world is becoming increasingly more evil. Yeah, we know about heaven, but we don’t talk about it enough. We don’t remind each other enough. And because we don’t talk about it, and because we don’t remind each other of it, we forget how valuable it is. And so, in our fear, and in our forgetfulness in this crazy world, we chase that which is temporal, and we forsake that which is transcendent and eternal.

And listen, when Jesus says, For what can a man give in return for his soul? Here, Jesus is saying that the cost of the soul is so valuable. What it costs to bring you into eternity is so high that you can’t place a value on it. Essentially, Jesus is saying here, You can sell your soul, but you can’t buy it. Because the cost is so high, no amount of money or resources in this life can pay for your soul. So if you sell your soul for this temporal world, nothing in this world could ever buy it back. And you see, this, brothers and sisters, is why Jesus had to lay his life down for your soul. Because only an infinite God, with infinite worth, could pay for a priceless soul, and he did it. He bought your soul with his own blood and his own body.

The Confident Confession

And really what Jesus wants us to understand in this rhetorical question, these rhetorical questions, is this. The costly sacrifice to follow him comes with an infinite and incomprehensible eternal blessing. The God who occupies the heavens. And oh, what a glorious day, when this world finally passes away, and we are face to face with Jesus, our God and our King. There is nothing more valuable than that. And so may God help us to see the infinite worth of the world to come. May God help us to count everything in this world as loss compared to being with the God of all eternity. And then Jesus makes this final address concerning the cost of following him, and we see that in verse 38 with a confident confession. For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

Here Jesus gives another consequence of discipleship, but this time Jesus frames it in the negative by addressing shame. In verse 35, if you remember, Jesus said, whoever loses his life for my sake or for the gospel sake will save it. That was framed in the positive. If you give up your life for Jesus and his gospel, you will save your life. And here Jesus is essentially saying there’s a flip side to that coin. If you repudiate me and my gospel, if you deny me or my gospel, if you’re ashamed of me and my gospel, if you refuse to identify with me and my gospel, then the consequence of that decision is that Jesus will deny you. He will be ashamed of you. He will not identify with you when he comes in the glory of his Father and with the holy angels. And you see the whole reason why Jesus uses the word ashamed here is to draw you back to his second conditional call.

To pick up your cross and follow Jesus meant that you will walk the path of shame and humiliation for him. It’s inevitable that the world will mock you and shame you for following after Jesus. But what Jesus is saying here is that it would be far better to be ashamed by the world for following Jesus than to be ashamed by Jesus for following the world. Because the world is passing away. And when it does, Jesus will return with the holy angels and with the glory of his Father. And you see, of course, the opposite of this consequence is true. That if you receive Jesus, if you declare his words in this adulterous and sinful world, that even when the world shames you, when Jesus comes in glory, he will receive you. He will reward you. May God grant us courage to confess him and his gospel so that he may never be ashamed of us.

And so that we might share in his glory when he returns. And to seal this truth of his coming in glory in chapter nine, verse one, it says, and he said to them, truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God, after it has come with power. So Jesus is saying, some of you who are standing here in my presence will see a bit of this power that I’m talking about. In fact, a few of you won’t face physical death until you’ve seen some of it. Now, what is Jesus referencing here with this kingdom of God coming in power to these disciples? Now, some people think that this is a reference to the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus. Some folks say it’s the sending of the spirit at Pentecost.

Some say it’s a reference to the imminent return of Jesus, and I think that’s ultimately what Jesus is alluding to here. But most commentators would say what Jesus is referencing here. And I tend to agree with them that Jesus here is referencing what we’ll see in our text next week with a transfiguration. Now, we’re going to look at that in great detail next Sunday, so I don’t want to dive too deep into it. But essentially what you have is a few of the disciples, Peter, James, and John, who are led up onto this mountain with Jesus. Where Jesus is transfigured, where his power and his glory is revealed before his disciples. And immediately after Jesus is transfigured, this voice comes from the clouds. Again, the father speaks from heaven. This is my beloved son. So these disciples were the ones, these three of them, who would not taste death until they saw the kingdom of God coming in power.

You see, one of the reasons why I’m convinced that this is a reference to the transfiguration is because in 2 Peter 1, verses 16 through 18, it says,

For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the majestic glory by the majestic glory, this is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased. We ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain

— 2 Peter 1

(ESV)

. You see, these three disciples saw the kingdom of God coming in power. Now they saw it only in part. These three men were eyewitnesses to this power in part. But what Jesus is ultimately driving at is that we all will see it in full when Christ finally returns.

Living the Cost

So essentially, Jesus is confirming to his disciples that he will come in power and in glory. And in fact, some of you disciples, you’re going to see a bit of it on this holy mountain. But when he comes again in his full power, bringing his kingdom with him, it won’t be like the transfiguration. What they saw was only a glimpse of the kingdom in power. When he comes again in his full power to judge the world in righteousness and bringing with him his coming kingdom, then you will truly see the power of God. And far be it for us to be ashamed when he comes on that day. Now what does all of this mean for us, this cost of discipleship? It means that if we want to follow Jesus, we got to lay down all of the impediments in our life. We must be willing to share in Jesus’s suffering and humiliation.

And even if that means death, it means we must forsake the allure of the world. And I know there are many allures in this world. We must lose our life for the sake of Christ and his gospel if we intend to save it. We must see this fleeting world and all of its unfulfilling treasures and put them in the category of loss. In the category of meaninglessness, emptiness, and hold fast to the world that is to come. Because nothing in this life compares. Nothing compares to what we have in the world to come where we will be face to face with our God and King for all of eternity. Now listen, just to be clear, this doesn’t mean that we run from the world. We are called to live in this world. We just need to make sure that we’re not living for this world because it’s passing away.

1 John 2.17 says, Now to be clear, this doesn’t mean that we don’t get to enjoy all the good gifts of this world either. God has given us many good gifts. The scripture says that every good and perfect gift comes from above. It comes from him. So we don’t deny ourselves those gifts. We enjoy them. In fact, that’s why God has given them to us in the first place. This is not a call to deny God’s good gifts. It’s a call to deny ourselves as Lord and sovereign over our own life. To follow after the true and living God as sovereign over everything and everyone. And the reason why Jesus laid this out for us is because despite what the world says, despite everything that the world tells us, the lasting joy and happiness comes when you are being true to yourself. When you indulge yourself.

When you live in the ways that you want to live right now. That we ourselves are the greatest priority. Despite what the world says, Jesus says the path to true life and true freedom is found in denying yourselves and following after Jesus. Listen, he is a better God. And he offers you a better life. This is why we follow after him. This is why we consider the cost. And we do it anyway. Let’s pray. Our Father and our God, we thank you that your gospel is free.

We thank you that we don’t have to work to earn salvation. But we pray, oh God, that you would help us to consider what it means for us to follow Jesus. I pray, God, that you would help us to do what you call us to do. We can’t do it on our own. We’re bent to do the opposite. And so I pray, God, that you would help us to lay down our lives and follow you. Help us to prize and prioritize the life that is to come. Help us to see that this world is passing away and to see the surpassing beauty of what awaits us. We pray, oh Lord and God, that you would consistently put before our eyes the beauty of what lies before us. So that we don’t get so fixed on this world, the things that are temporal. But that we would continue to strive because we ultimately see what awaits us.

Help us to do that very thing, Father, we pray. Help us to live in such a way where the world takes notice that we live differently, that our lives are different, that we follow after something that is far more valuable. Help us to see that and not be ashamed to talk about it. Help us to love this world. Help us to love the people in this world, but not love it more than you. We pray these things in Christ’s name.