Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

You simply cannot get around self-denial in the New Testament.

Let me just read to you a few verses from the New Testament: , "But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil.

But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.

And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.

And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.

Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you."  Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, 22 and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake.

But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

23 When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

says, "33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple."

says, "12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted."

You simply cannot get around self-denial in the New Testament.

Let me just read to you a few verses from the New Testament: , "But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil.

But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.

And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.

And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.

Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you."  Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, 22 and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake.

But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

23 When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

says, "33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple."

says, "12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted."

To follow after Jesus is to deny yourself.

To follow after Jesus is to abandon everything that this world tells you is necessary for you happiness and your satisfaction because you trust that Jesus is better and more satisfying and more delightful.

This morning, I want us to focus our attention once again on the very same text we looked at last week.

And, last week we looked at this text and saw the cost of being a disciple of Jesus.

This week, I want to take this a step further and look at the cost of being a disciple-maker.

God’s Word

Read

Starting a Death March

"If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross" Now, I want us to first remember how our text defines a true disciple of Jesus.

Jesus says that 'if anyone would come after me', that is, if anyone would be my disciples or if anyone would want to be apart of my Kingdom, 'let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.' So, Jesus says that his disciples will live cross-shaped lives.

They will live lives that are defined by the self-denial that is found at the cross.

They understand that if they are going to follow after Jesus and grow into the image of Jesus that they must go where Jesus went.

They must go to the cross.

And, here I want to remind you that Jesus is not talking about a metaphorical cross.

Jesus is not talking about cross-bearing in the way that we have become so accustomed to thinking of it.

He is not speaking of an achy back or nagging mother-in-law or a rebellious child.

Jesus is talking about a cross upon which you are physically and literally murdered.

He is talking about dying a martyr's death because of your allegiance to Jesus Christ as the only path of salvation.

Jesus is teaching us that his disciples will be defined by a literal willingness to die because they know that Jesus is better than life.

And because they have a literal readiness and willingness to die because of their allegiance to the Lord Jesus, they are certainly more than okay with enduring a few momentary discomforts and difficulties as they serve Jesus with all of their lives.

John MacArthur describes discipleship in this passage as being 'willing to start a death march...willing, in His service to suffer the indignities, the pain, and even the death of a condemned criminal.'

And brothers and sisters, understand that this is the material that revival is made of.

Revival does not come through a weekly preaching series that we casually attend, and revival does not come because we have figured out how to swell our attendance.

No! The kind of revival that changes the communities in which they occur, the kind of revival that leaves men and women awestruck by the glory of God, the kind of revival that changes the trajectory of the generations is the result of men and women living with a resolute willingness to die and suffer for the cause of Christ, and as a result living their lives with a reckless abandonment, with a Spirit-wrought freedom that can only come when you are okay with dying, okay with being unpopular, and okay with being uncomfortable.

That, brothers and sisters, is the material of revival!

That, brothers and sisters, is the secret to the Book of Acts in which the Holy Spirit descends upon the people of God and the people of God go out with a reckless abandonment for the glory of Christ so that they ultimately die and the gospel unstoppably spreads.

Now, the question I want us to consider this morning is: What would cause the disciples to suffer?

And, I want us to consider this because it gets to the root of why I believe we will suffer, and it gets to the very root of so much that we are asking you to do as members of Iron City Baptist Church.

What was it about the lives of Jesus' disciples in that day, and now in ours, that causes them to suffer?

Why was Stephen stoned, and why was James beheaded?

Why was Peter crucified, and why was John boiled alive in oil?

Why was Paul stoned and beaten and left for dead?

Why was James the Just thrown from the pinnacle of the temple and then clubbed to death?

Why were Christians burned in Nero's Gardens?

Why was Dietrich Bonhoeffer hanged in Nazi, Germany after living in a concentration camp?

Why are missionaries today living in North Korean work camps?

Why are Christians in the Middle East having their beheadings live-streamed around the world?

I submit to you that the answer to each and every circumstance, spanning the whole of church history, is that they are suffering and dying because they are intent on making disciples.

It is not because they are praying in their homes alone.

It is not because they are trying to have a private relationship with Jesus that doesn't tell other people that they are wrong.

It is because they have taken up the mantle and mission of Jesus to make disciples of all nations.

It is because they have been audacious enough to claim that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life and that no one gets to the Father except through him.

It is because they have taught and preached and lived that man must repent of his sins and pursue Christ with every fiber of his being.

Now, the question I want us to consider this morning is: What would cause the disciples to suffer?

And, I want us to consider this because it gets to the root of why I believe we will suffer, and it gets to the very root of so much that we are asking you to do as members of Iron City Baptist Church.

What was it about the lives of Jesus' disciples in that day, and now in ours, that causes them to suffer?

Why was Stephen stoned, and why was James beheaded?

Why was Peter crucified, and why was John boiled alive in oil?

Why was Paul stoned and beaten and left for dead?

Why was James the Just thrown from the pinnacle of the temple and then clubbed to death?

Why were Christians burned in Nero's Gardens?

Why was Dietrich Bonhoeffer hanged in Nazi, Germany after living in a concentration camp?

Why are missionaries today living in North Korean work camps?

Why are Christians in the Middle East having their beheadings live-streamed around the world?

I submit to you that the answer to each and every circumstance, spanning the whole of church history, is that they are suffering and dying because they are intent on making disciples.

It is not because they are praying in their homes alone.

It is not because they are trying to have a private relationship with Jesus that doesn't tell other people that they are wrong.

It is because they have taken up the mantle and mission of Jesus to make disciples of all nations.

It is because they have been audacious enough to claim that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life and that no one gets to the Father except through him.

It is because they have taught and preached and lived that man must repent of his sins and pursue Christ with every fiber of his being.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a man who refused to bow, like many other church leaders, to the atrocities of the Nazi regime.

Resolute to make disciples and to raise up preachers, he founded an illegal and underground seminary to train German pastors to live faithfully for Christ in the midst of the Nazi regime, knowing that many of the men he was training would likely find their ways into concentration camps and gas chambers.

Viewed as a 'spiritual instigator' he was imprisoned in a concentration camp, ultimately to be hanged.

A witness to his hanging said this: "I saw Pastor Bonhoeffer...kneeling on the floor praying fervently to God.

I was most deeply moved by the way this lovable man prayed, so devout and so certain that God heard his prayer.

At the place of execution, he again said a short prayer and then climbed the few steps to the gallows, brave and composed.

His death ensued after a few seconds.

In the almost fifty years that I worked as a doctor, I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God."

Means and Method: Lay Down Your Life

If we make disciples by the method of Jesus, it will cost us our lives.

The nature of being a disciple of Jesus is laying down your life, and the nature of making disciples is laying down your life.

The means of becoming a disciple translates into the method of making disciples.

There is nothing easy or convenient or self-indulgent about disciple-making.

Disciple-making is gut-wrenching.

It is to embrace a position of vulnerability in this world for the sake of the building of God's kingdom.

Disciple-making makes us vulnerable to betrayal and to being misunderstood.

It makes us vulnerable to disappointment and to heartache.

It requires patience and long-suffering.

It requires uncomfortable confrontations and painful forgiveness.