What is Discipleship - Jason Logoluso

Good morning. It's truly a joy to be here with you all this morning, and we do feel very welcome. Far from home, we bring you greetings from Los Angeles. It does help to have several of us here who are from our small fellowship there in Los Angeles.

As you've already heard the title of this morning, I'd like to ask a question, or maybe a series of questions. What do you think of, or what comes to mind when you hear the word "discipleship"? What are your thoughts on this topic? And do your thoughts, my thoughts, line up with what Christ has said about discipleship?

And I ask it in that way that maybe throughout this talk you'll be considering some of those thoughts, and again, how do they line up with what Christ said. And I don't think there'd be any debate here this morning that this is a very important topic. Christ made it that way. He put this as a focus, not the only focus, but a focus for the church after his resurrection. And we're going to look at that here this morning.

And over the years, I've heard so many people that will say, "I maybe couldn't continue on with the local congregation because there was a lack of discipleship. There was something lacking there." Again, emphasizing the importance of this topic.

And others that would feel very comfortable and continue on with the local body because there's been a serious effort to put into practice Christ's teachings on discipleship. Maybe some of the thoughts that you have had on this topic are centered around something that I've already alluded to, some type of structure where the church is making an effort for brothers and sisters to come together and maybe be accountable in different groups or whatnot. Or maybe when you think of discipleship, just plainly, it's the Christian life. Our day in and day out, abiding with Christ, walking with him, meditating on what he said, and putting that into practice in our lives.

I think when I hear of discipleship, I think of the definition of what it means to be a disciple. It's a pretty simple definition that I've understood. To be a disciple means to be a student, a learner, maybe a pupil.

And also, though, it means to be a follower, which I think we all can see how that would bring a lot of importance to our walk with Christ. Maybe what came to mind was simply that Christ is, without doubt, our example as a master teacher, and we are simply those that sit at his feet and desire to learn of him and follow him. Over the years, I've heard several messages on discipleship or simply being a disciple of Christ. Usually, it's from an older brother than me, someone that's more mature, who's had a lot of experience in discipling others, probably has had several success stories of people that they've labored with and seen good fruit. I don't have those stories necessarily or experiences this morning.

I can definitely share many failures on that topic, but I would like to look at an aspect of discipleship that I don't necessarily hear getting discussed all that much. So this morning, it's not going to be a comprehensive message. I think the topic is vast. I won't be able to cover everything on discipleship, but a specific aspect that I feel could use some attention.

But let's start this morning in Matthew 28. I know this is a very familiar passage that we all know personally. Matthew 28, verses 18 through 20, we'll look at. Personally, I don't think I could hear this quoted enough or taught on enough. I think it's a good place to look at a real specific definition of what Christ would say is discipleship or what he wanted us to understand. Now, we have the life of Christ, the example he left, all the time he spent with his disciples, what he poured out of his life into them, and how they responded to that. And in no way am I saying that Matthew 28 is the beginning of Christ giving us this example of discipleship.

He did that his whole life. But when I look at these words here in Matthew 28, we all know is the Great Commission. Just read them here. It says, "And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, 'All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.

And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.'" So again, I understand we're all very familiar with this. We see in verse 19, you could say a double command to make disciples first and then to baptize. And many have pointed out that that is very specific. Christ gave us an order there.

And other translations may say, instead of make disciples, teaching all the nations. So the question should be raised is, what is it that we're to be taught or should be being taught in making disciples or the whole topic of discipleship? What is to be taught? Well, Christ doesn't leave us guessing. He says it very plainly here, "All things that he commanded his disciples.

All things that he commanded." Now, my experience growing up, believing I was a Christian, I would have had really no clue of this concept that I should have learned, all things that Christ told his disciples. I don't even think I could have probably pointed out any of Christ or quoted, "Yeah, this is what Christ commanded here or there."

And for some, this may be helpful. Passages that I would want to point people to, I think, is very important when we're talking about the commands of Christ. Where can we find those? Where can we see those? Matthew 5 through 7 is obviously a place we should be starting.

Luke 6, the Sermon on the Plane. I had the privilege of going through Luke chapter 6, at least the Sermon on the Plane just recently. It was a good study for me. John 15, I would encourage many to look at to know what Christ taught. Matthew 13, we have several parables there of the kingdom of God, and gaining an understanding of that would be a great place to look.

Luke 12, and Matthew 10, and Luke 14, I'd also add in there. And there's no—I don't think that's comprehensive. There's other places we could look at to find where Christ gave specific commands to his disciples. Now, there are additional commands that Christ gave after his resurrection and his ascension through the apostles that we don't have recorded in the Gospels, but you can reference Acts chapter 1, the first three verses, and you can see that there it says that through the Holy Spirit, Christ had given commandments to the apostles whom he had chosen. So there are some additional commands there. But in today's Christianity, we would probably be very hard-pressed to find Christians, like I said of myself, that could even really list the commands of Christ.

I think I would probably have done myself or heard others say that Jesus said that we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love our neighbors as ourselves, which is absolutely a true teaching. Christ was summarizing the law and the prophets there. But that is not the comprehensive teachings of Christ and those that specifically that he commanded his disciples that we are to be commanding others or teaching others also to follow when we're talking about discipleship.

Very few Christians are even aware, as I was, that Christ gave any commandments to obey. That was something for the Old Testament. That was with Moses. That was in the law. And so that would have been my thinking, which I think a lot maybe can relate to that. And I was curious in considering just this word disciple. We have several titles that we would call others that are following Christ. Maybe we just use the word believer. When I looked up the word disciple, you see it throughout the Gospels. You see it in the book of Acts, and it seems like it kind of disappears, and I'm not really sure the reason for that. But if I would have greeted you all as disciples of Christ, would that have sounded a bit strange to our ears?

And I think of that as myself. Do I think of myself continually as a disciple of Jesus Christ? There's other wonderful titles that we can say, brothers and sisters, the beloved, sanctified ones or saints, and maybe a less popular one is slaves of Christ or other ways we refer to ourselves. And this was so obvious with the church in the book of Acts that these disciples of Jesus Christ had to be called Christians, which is really our goal, right? To be exemplifying our master, teacher, Jesus Christ, that we are also recognized with him.

When I think of all that Christ has said throughout the Gospels, Luke 14 is going to be the passage I want to focus on this morning. Luke 14, if you want to turn there, we'll be looking at verses 25 through 33. This is a section of scripture that has a lot of relevance to my life, and I'll try to share that throughout this message. This is a passage of Christ's teaching that I said was I would list if I wanted to give somebody kind of a shorthand, Matthew 5, Luke 6. I included in there Luke 14, and we'll also be looking at a parallel passage in Matthew 10. It seems like this passage, this section here of Christ's teaching is often maybe either misunderstood or could be just ignored.

I think there are some that have a bit of a difficulty relating to some of these words of Christ. And like I said, I'd like to share some of my own personal testimony and how they related to me in my life. Or these words maybe sometimes are spiritualized. I recently heard a brother preaching on the topic of discipleship. It was a helpful message. And I thought it was good that he referenced Luke 14 and very humbly admitted that he didn't feel like he had a really good grasp on this passage of what Christ said there in those verses 25 through 33.

And I think there's reasons for that. I think we are kind of inundated with a lot of preaching and even in some of the singing, some of the lyrics from the songs that really present the Gospel of Jesus Christ as one that doesn't have any cost to it to follow it.

A common thing we'll hear from people is that Christ paid it all, and to come to Christ doesn't cost us anything. But in reality, Jesus, as we'll see here, he said it's going to cost us everything to follow him.

Some people may say that it's very easy to simply just come to Jesus. Many of us who are familiar with this passage maybe have wondered, how do we apply these words of Jesus to our lives? And I hope I can offer some help in that, not just with my thoughts, but we're going to look at some of the thoughts of the early church, which helped me. This morning, I feel like I have a bit of a challenge to try to help us take these words of Christ very seriously, very literally, but at the same time, I don't want to miss the spirit of why Christ taught what he did. And I hope that any of the brothers here would be happy to share if they feel like I missed some of that this morning.

So I'd like to read the passage and just ask you to simply just listen and hear these words of Christ. Again, we're in Luke 14. We're looking at verses 25 through 33. And after that, I'd like to take some time to go through some of the verses here that I think should really get some of our attention this morning.

Luke 14, verse 25 says, "Now great multitudes went with him, and he turned and said to them, 'If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

And whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you intending to build a tower does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it, lest after he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.' Or what king going to make war against another king does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with 10,000 to meet him, who comes against him with 20,000? Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace.

So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple."

Here in verse 25, I noticed the phrase here that says that great multitudes were with Christ. And I was just kind of curious looking out at other times the New Testament, the Gospels said that there were great multitudes with Christ. And we see in several of those places there was Jesus had done something, a miracle, a healing.

Maybe he did teach. But here we have Christ saying maybe some of the hardest words it is for a disciple to hear, a person to hear that wants to come and follow Christ. And if you feel that way this morning, just hearing these words from Christ, you're not alone. Others throughout history have pointed out that, yes, these are some hard sayings.

Of course, that makes me think of John 6 when the disciples brought that up after Christ had told them that they had to eat of his flesh and drink of his blood. And we know the response of Christ saying, "Will you go away or will you continue to follow?"

And their response was wonderful that only you have the words of life. And these are the same here. These words of Christ are life. I think people stumble over the English word here, hate. I was curious if this maybe was a different Greek word. You'll find the same Greek word. I think it's missaio, if I'm saying that right.

You'll find that in Matthew 5 where Jesus said you had heard that it's been said to love your neighbor and hate your enemy. So the same Greek word there was translated hate. So it's not that this is some different Greek word that was maybe a poor translation.

I feel like in thinking on this topic here, especially verse 26, "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and his own life." Specifically here, we see Christ basically covering all the people in our lives that are dearest and closest to us.

Us Westerners or those that are from the Western world, we somewhat miss, I think, some of the intensity here when Christ said what he said. No doubt this is something that is this cross culture. Any culture will take these words of Christ and think of, "Wow, this really does take a lot to follow him." My wife, as many of you know here or some of you know, is from the Middle East. And there's something about the Middle Eastern culture and their relationship in family that is quite unique. It's unique to me, and it's something I'll have a very hard time articulating and putting into words. But when you experience it, you see, I would probably say an unmatched loyalty to family.

And of course, Christ here is saying this to people from that area of the world. I don't think he said this for shock value. I think this was something that, as he is teaching, people must have been thinking, "Did he really just say what he said?

Is this really what it's going to take to follow me, to follow Christ?" So I think we lose a little bit of that in our culture. Christ here says, "If anyone comes to him," and I would reference Luke chapter 6 where Christ puts coming to him with hearing his words and doing what he says. That's significant.

Most of my life, I've heard people say they've come to Christ. What did they mean by that? You can see that there in Luke 6 of what he meant by coming to him.

So here with this verse, verse 26, I would like to read it's a quote from Clement of Alexandria. It's going to be a longer quote, and I'm going to try to use some summary through here and break up some of what he said. But specifically commenting on these verses, I thought again was very helpful for me. I know it's a bit difficult to listen to long quotes, but I'll try my best to break it up. He says this, "For the God of peace, who also exhorts to love enemies, does not introduce hatred and dissolution from those that are dearest.

But if we are to love our enemies, it's in accordance with right reason that ascending from them, we should love also those nearest and kindred. Or if we are to hate our blood relations, deduction teaches us that much more we are to spurn from us our enemies." So in other words, he's saying if Christ is teaching us to. Again, if you're reading this and thinking of hate as doing harm or evil to the closest people in our life, then he must be teaching us to hate our enemies also.

But that is not what he's teaching, but I'll continue. He says, "So that the reasonings would be shown to destroy one another. But they do not destroy each other, nor are they doing so. For from the same feeling and disposition and on the ground of the same rule, one loving his enemy may hate his father inasmuch as he neither takes vengeance on an enemy nor reverences a father more than Christ."

So in summary here, he's defining hate as giving less reverence to those closest to us, even our parents, in relation to Christ. And the quote here ends. It says, "For by the one word, he removes or totally destroys hatred and iniquity, which is the teaching of loving our enemies. And by the other, shamefacedness towards one's relations, if it is detrimental to salvation." So that's again how he's defining hate. "If then one's father or son or brother be godless and become a hindrance to faith and an impediment to a higher life, let him not be friends or agree with him, but on account of the spiritual enmity, let him dissolve the fleshly relationships."

So I thought that was helpful there in just kind of understanding the difference in relations as people could say, "Well, wait a minute. We have a God of love. We have one that is even telling us to love our enemies, love people that do us harm. It's not just enough to simply not resist or retaliate, but we are to love those that do evil towards us."

And Clement's point is there is no contradiction. Another helpful quote I found from Origen. Now he's commenting on Matthew 5, verses 20 through 30. I won't read the whole thing here, but just a short clip of this quote here.

He is comparing this passage and mixing it here in with Matthew 5. He says, "But even if the wife of our bosom or a friend who is kindred in soul becomes a stumbling block to us, let us not spare them, but let us cut them out from ourselves and cast them aside of our soul, as not being truly our kindred, but enemies of our salvation.

For whoever hates not father and mother and the others subjoined, when it is a fitting season to hate them as enemies and assailants, that they may be able purpose to win Christ." Then he says, "This man is not worthy of the Son of God."

That's a very helpful passage there to, again, understand what Christ was saying here in Luke 14. I'd mentioned that a parallel passage to help us understand what Jesus was saying here would be Matthew chapter 10 and verses 34 through 37. You don't necessarily have to quote there, but I think it's a good parallel passage that we can learn and understand what Christ is saying. And I'll read that here.

Matthew 10:34 through 37, Jesus says, "Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I've come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's enemies will be those of his household."

Verse 37, "He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me." I'd like to read a bit more of that passage here in a moment. I mentioned this being as a parallel passage, I think is another way we can understand what it means to hate father, mother, wife, children, sister, brothers, and our own lives there, as he says specifically about the parents. "Loving father or mother more than Christ will make us not worthy of Christ."

Paul gives us, you know, you may be asking, "Well, doesn't Paul and others teach us to honor our parents, to love our parents?" And absolutely he does. John Chrysostom said this, "If Paul gives many directions touching parents, commanding us to obey them in all things, he says, 'Marvel not. For in those things only does he mean us to obey as many as do not hinder godliness.

For indeed it's a sacred duty to render them all honors. But when they demand more than this that's due, one ought not to obey.'" And then he goes on to quote the passage here in Luke 14. As I said before, getting personal in our lives, my life specifically with my family, my wife, my children, my father and mother, even my brother and sister, definitely had these verses in my heart and in my mind. I don't want to say that I applied them perfectly in going through that process, but I had to, and I believe literally hate my wife, my family to follow Christ. And I hope you understand that I'm not saying that I did them evil or harm or were harsh to them, but I literally had to put the calling of Christ in his direction before the will of my wife, my parents, my family, and others who didn't see it the same way, didn't see that that was really necessary to follow Christ.

And I wouldn't be standing here before you today if that was not the case. I wouldn't be here sharing with you in the fellowship of Christ, being here, testifying of the goodness of God and the mercy he showed me in my life. And thankfully this morning, my wife also chose to follow. My children are with me, and I do appreciate the grace of God that my relationship with my parents is in a good place. My father and my mother have passed. But some may though ask, "Well, what if I have godly parents? How do these verses apply? What if my family is all following Christ?

How do we understand some of these words of Christ specifically there in verse 26?" And I don't have a blueprint to spell out for everybody how this will look, but I do know of brothers and sisters who have had, even with godly parents, parents that were doing what they knew to follow Christ, to still, in the words of Christ, hate them and follow a way that they may not have been very happy with or something that was unfamiliar with them. Maybe it violated some of the traditions that they were used to. And my point is that no matter what scenario you come from, godly parents or ungodly parents, these words of Christ have to be a reality in our life.

And I'm sure that so many here would agree with this statement. Although there is a cost and there is a high price to pay, it is all worth it. And this is coming from someone who would say that to anyone that asked. It is completely worth the literal following of Christ as best as we did to be where we are today.

Verse 27 takes some time here to look at. And just kind of all these verses here that we are looking at, verses 25 through 33, I'm sure none of you missed this phrase, "Cannot be my disciple." And that is why I want to bring attention to this passage.

And again, it's not meant to be comprehensive on the topic of discipleship. But verse 27 says, "And whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple." And I mentioned the rest of Matthew 10. I wanted to read verses 38 and 39. Jesus said basically the same thing. He says, "And he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. And he who finds his life will lose it. And he who loses his life for my sake will find it."

And the question comes up then, are we worthy of Christ to follow him? And yes, that is straight from the words of Christ. We must be worthy of him to follow him. And again, the culture or the situation we're in, the environment of Christianity today does not support that notion that it's even necessary to be one that's worthy of Christ. Another quote here I'd like to look at just briefly. Again, Clement of Alexandria wrote here about this verse.

I thought it was very interesting that the quote that I have here, he says this, "He knows accurately the declaration from Christ, unless you hate father and mother and besides your own life, and unless you bear the sign," speaking of bearing our cross.

I won't read the rest of the quote, but he plainly put forth that this is something that is known. It's part of our gospel. It's what we understand as the cost of following Christ. And he goes on to list some things that apply to what it means to pick up our cross and follow Christ.

And thinking of hating our lives for Christ, losing our lives to find it, I think we all could understand that it has to play out practically. Separating our life from the fellowship with the world, from all the world's passions and pleasures, all of the desires that we seek after, Christ is requiring us to lay down.

And what's unique about the Christian life is that we find victory in dying for Christ and in laying our lives down. When we die to ourself, when we die to the flesh, we receive life from Christ. That cross that many people sing about, don't necessarily want to place themselves there. And I know I'm in that category at times.

The cross as an instrument of death, crucifying the flesh, produces the life of Jesus Christ that we all seek after and need.

The parables here that Jesus used to get his point across, and I think did a perfect job of that here as what it means to count the cost. We'll just look at here briefly. Jesus here in verse 28 through 30 uses the example of one that's building a tower.

Now, I'm not a builder. I don't know all that's involved in that or have ever had any experience in that, but this is not an easy thing. Looking on the outside, we may think it is, but there's a lot that goes into knowing how much is it going to cost to start, how much material goes into this, how much time it takes, what are all the aspects that will help finish the project.

And here we, of course, find the phrase in verse 28 of counting the cost. The end result, if we do not count the cost here in this parable, is that we will be those that begin in Christ and do not finish our course in him and can be a mockery to the gospel.

The second parable, it seems as though the situation, the intensity of counting the cost goes up a notch. Here we have a king who is debating or not whether to go to war against another king, and he's outmanned.

And now the decision comes, "Do I risk the lives of my men who most likely will be overthrown by the army that's bigger?" And again, I don't know how much to take of some of these words here, but it does seem to me when we're considering Christ's words here, which would even be prior to baptism and that would continue on, I would hope we all see this as something that continues even after baptism, that we are counting the cost in some way daily. Although that initial cost has been counted to follow Christ, this does take an ability to look and see, "Am I willing to really lay down all that's necessary to follow the Lord?"

And as we come to verse 33, Jesus has here the transition, "So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple." And again, uses the same phrase there, "Cannot be my disciple." When we think about forsaking all for Christ, I was also curious of how this word was translated from the Greek. And it was also used in Luke 9:61, where the question was asked to the Lord or the person made the statement, "Lord, I will follow you.

Let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house." And that word there that they translated farewell is also the same Greek word here that was used in verse 33. You also can use it as kind of saying goodbye. And I thought of just how this would play out in our lives as we were just saying goodbye to all the things in life and all the things, all our possessions, all the things that matter to us, to lay our lives down to follow Christ.

And as we've looked at some of these verses here from Christ, the statements that he's made, you maybe can ask a question, "Why? Why is it this way? Why so much is required? Why is there so much to be required?" And I was meditating on that, and I don't know if I have maybe the best answer for the seriousness here of following Christ, but I came to the conclusion that it just simply had to be this way.

Christ knew that if there was any less love and commitment from us, that it would result in us turning away from him. And so I don't look at these words, even the harder ones that say, "Hating father, mother, wife, children, sister, brother, and my own life," as something that is a negative. It's a necessity. And we have such a loving, merciful, forgiving Father who wants us to be this committed to him. I believe if we have these teachings of Christ written in our hearts, not only will we be able to disciple others, but we ourselves can be discipled.

So I think Christ simply knew that it had to be this way.

Cyprian, another quote here from one of the early church writers, was giving several warnings of not beginning and going back to the world, beginning in Christ. He used the example of the Israelites who were wandering and were in Egypt and were in the wilderness and had those desires to go back. He said this, "If you're a person," or I'm sorry, he said this, "unless anyone should be retarded by any covetousness of wealth or attraction of his own people from following Christ." He said, and then quotes, "He that forsakes not all that he has cannot be my disciple." So he looked at it as a necessity, as a help, as a guide of why Christ required this much out of us to follow him.

And if you're a person this morning that says, "You know what? This is too much. Christ requires too much to follow him," then unfortunately in this moment, you would be someone that's not worthy of Christ. You don't have to stay in that place. You can repent of that way of thinking and view of Christ. But in summary, our love for God has to supersede any love for any person, possession, or anything that we have in this life, any desire, any ambition. Our love has to supersede it. It has to reach, in a sense, in a way, something heavenly, something that is beyond what we may even know or understand here in this life. And again, I don't believe this is just something that needs to be hashed out prior to baptism, but something that must be a continuance with us to abide with Christ to the end.

So as a way of encouragement, I wanted to look at some examples this morning of those who actually did the things that Christ just said here in Luke 14 and follow him. And the best place, I think, to look at is the disciples.

Peter in Mark chapter 10 makes this statement to Jesus. He said to Christ, "See, we have left all and followed you." And Jesus answered and said, "Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers, sisters, or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake and the gospels. Who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and lands with persecution and in the age to come, eternal life?" And then says, "But many of you who are first will be last and the last first." Now, I don't think Peter here was talking out of turn or maybe being carnal or something that people would want to associate here in this response.

I think Peter, after hearing the things that Christ said, said, "Lord, wait, we actually are doing this. We really have left all these things and even maybe jeopardized relationships and people that we love, that we care about the most." And you see that Christ's response here wasn't a rebuke to him. At least that's not how I see this. I see Christ's response as, "You have, and these are the things that will happen." And I can say personally that in our lives that we have without doubt received whatever measure this hundredfold is meant to be, brothers and sisters, those that we have found fellowship with Christ, many who have been in a role of maybe mother and father and others, sisters and brothers, no doubt, leaving some of our other relationships behind for Christ's sake and the gospel, as he says here.

We no doubt have experienced that, and I've been blessed by that.

That was from Peter, of course. Matthew, it says of him and his gospel that as he was sitting in the tax office, he heard the words of Christ, "Follow me," and he rose and followed. He had no hesitation to leave behind the things that he was focused on and doing. James and John, example that I'm sure many of us think of as he Christ sees both of them with their father in the boat fishing, doing the things that they did probably day in and day out. It says that they immediately left their boat and their father and followed him.

Wonderful examples of those that put aside the things of this life to follow Christ. And we could go throughout the centuries, probably find people in every century that have done the same to follow Christ. And I hope encourages you, those of you that are aware of some of that history, that know people that have sacrificed so much to follow Christ in this life, if you heard and saw and know of the promises that Jesus makes to those that do that. John 12 here is a passage that has meant a lot to me over the years, and I hope is an encouragement to you. John 12:24 through 26, I'm sure would be good to write down and also maybe even commit to memory.

Jesus said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for life eternal.

If anyone sees me, let him follow me. Where I am, there my servant will be also. If anyone serves me, him my Father will also honor." That's John 12:24 through 26. We lose our life, we'll find it. We hate our life, we will receive life eternal.

I've looked at some statements here of Christ in Luke 14 that Jesus said, "Unless we do these things, we cannot be his disciple." But there are also places where Christ said, "We can know for sure that we are his disciple."

And I find a lot of comfort in a few of these passages. There's more that you could look at throughout Jesus's time on the earth and his teachings. But John 8:31 through 32, if you want to write that down or turn to it, is a statement here from Christ that we can cling to. Here, Jesus was speaking to the Jews who, at least in the moment, had believed on him, believed some of the things he was saying of himself.

And Christ turned to them and said, "If you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed. You shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free. If you abide in my word, we can know for sure that we are Christ's disciples." Another passage that also in John, actually all three of mine are here in John's gospel, John 13:34 through 35, we have a similar statement from Christ where he says here, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all," I'm sorry, "by this all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one for another."

So we can know again that we are Christ's disciples if we love our brother and sister. And John 15:8, a passage I referenced earlier before is another place where you can look to and understand that you're a disciple of Christ. Jesus said that we glorify or bring glory to the Father by bearing much fruit, and then he adds, "So you will be my disciples."

So I thought that would be an encouragement to us all that we can know if these things are true in our lives, we can know that we're Christ's disciples.

I think here in closing, I'd like to read some lyrics from a song that was written by an Anabaptist. I think it was Michael Schaefer. I might be wrong on that. These lyrics can be found in the Osborn. I think it's number 98. I just want you to think of some of the reality in what they were writing about, what they were singing about, and how real these verses here in Luke 14 were to them in their life.

Now, we can probably understand that because of the intense persecution they were under. But even in times where we're not being physically persecuted, physically resisted, I hope that we can see through some of the examples this morning that the words of Christ in Luke 14, they are helpful to us, are an aid to us, a tool for us to continue in him and continue abiding in the vine.

So I'll read here a few of the stanzas from this song. And it's speaking in the, it would be speaking of Christ, or Christ would be speaking to us, the way you can understand it. It says, "Whoever wants to be my disciple now must leave the world. He must become clean in his heart too.

He must hate his own life. Likewise, also he must venture all his possessions, his child and wife, even his own body. He must risk it all. Since whoever leaves everything that he has, house, land, wife, and children, we will certainly in this time find again a hundredfold because he follows my teachings and is born again.

In eternity, he certainly has been chosen to be one of God's children. But whoever here pushes my cross away from himself is not worthy of me because he has loved something on earth ahead of me. Nor can he be a servant of mine since he is ashamed of me before men.

I will not confess him before God either. Whoever confesses me and is not ashamed of me before men here on earth, I will certainly confess him before the angels of God because he alone laid down his life for my word. God, therefore, will raise him out of his death to life."

Again, I pray that these words are a blessing to you this morning as we consider what it takes to follow Christ.