Adapted from a Greg Nance sermon https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/7-what-does-it-take-to-follow-jesus-greg-nance-sermon-on-discipleship-66074?ref=SermonSeriesDetails

2. John McArthur, in his book,
“The Gospel According to Jesus,”
tells about a time when he was with a minister
driving through a city.
As they passed a liquor store John happened to
mention that it was an unusual-looking place.
“Yes,” he said. “There is a whole chain of those
stores around the city, all owned by one man.
He is a member of my Sunday School class.

3. John wondered aloud what the man was like
and the minister replied, “Oh, he’s quite faithful.
He is in class every week.”
“Does it bother him that he owns all those liquor
stores?” John asked. “We’ve talked about it
some,” he said. “But he feels people are going
to buy liquor anyway, so why not buy it from
him?” John asked, “What is his life like?”
“Well, he did leave his wife and has been living
with a young girl,” the minister replied.

4. Then after several minutes of bewildering
silence from John, this minister added, “You
know, sometimes it’s hard for me to understand
how a Christian can live like that.”
John writes, “I must confess that it is hard for
me to understand how someone who teaches
the Bible can assume that a man living in
rebellion against God is a Christian merely
because he claims to be.”

5. Jesus doesn’t just tell people that God loves
them and has a wonderful plan for their lives.
While this is true, it is only part of the truth.
God certainly loves us with love beyond our
wildest imagination.
He proves it by the price He paid for us.
But Jesus preached a kind of commitment that
is directly tied to the cross.
In chapter Jesus begins to reveal to His
disciples the price He will pay for them and for
us.

6. Jesus shows His personal commitment to God’s
plan for His own life.
It is wonderful, but it is horrible too.
Twice He says it. ( & )
But that is not all we see here.
Jesus also plainly tells us that God’s plan for
His life and God’s plan for ours is tied together.

7. NIV Then he said to them all:
“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny
themselves and take up their cross daily and
follow me. For whoever wants to save their
life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for
me will save it. What good is it for someone
to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit
their very self? Whoever is ashamed of me
and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed
of them when he comes in his glory and in the
glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

8. In this chapter we see Jesus training the twelve.
He starts by sending them out on a short term
mission trip.
As in most of life, nothing is quite as effective
as hands on training.
You could take a class on evangelism for
months and never learn as much as you would
opening your Bible and sharing the gospel of
Jesus Christ and your faith in Him.

9. Jesus believed in experience as a teaching tool.
He commands us to go. It is not optional if we
would be obedient followers of Christ.
Jesus didn’t just send them.
He empowered them first.
Then He instructed them.
Then He involved them by sending them out.
Their campaign made such a stir it even got
Herod’s attention.
These 12 went out in pairs.

10. NIV Calling the Twelve to him, he
began to send them out two by two and gave
them authority over impure spirits.
They not only preached they performed signs.
It was exciting! They even rounded up over 5000
men who came to Jesus. Someone has noted
that this 5000 men, besides women and children
is an army looking for a king. When Jesus feeds
them, by turning five loaves and two fish into a
feast, tells us that they wanted to
make Jesus king by force.

11. NIV Jesus, knowing that they
intended to come and make him king by force,
withdrew again to a mountain by himself.
This was a military move.
The disciples have the right heart,
but the wrong ideas.

12. NIV Once when Jesus was praying in
private and his disciples were with him, he
asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?”
They replied, “Some say John the Baptist;
others say Elijah; and still others, that one of
the prophets of long ago has come back to life.”
“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do
you say I am?” Peter answered, “God’s
Messiah.”

13. Peter would love to see Jesus on David’s throne
as the Messiah/Christ!
He’s excited! He’s pumped!
He talks about the kingdom of God in ways that
make men draw their swords!
Listen to Jesus warning to these excited
disciples… NIV Jesus strictly warned
them not to tell this to anyone.

14. Why? Because, they have no clue of God’s plan.
They think they know and therefore it is even
harder to get through to them.
Jesus is very frank. Look at verses & .
NIV And he said, “The Son of Man
must suffer many things and be rejected by the
elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the
law, and he must be killed and on the third day
be raised to life.”

15. NIV “Listen carefully to what I am
about to tell you: The Son of Man is going to be
delivered into the hands of men.”
NIV Peter took him aside and
began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said.
“This shall never happen to you!”

16. You see, Peter’s mind is made up.
Jesus is king. Jesus doesn’t die.
Peter has the perfect plan for Jesus.
It doesn’t include suffering, rejection, and
certainly not being killed.
If Peter is thinking like this,
I’m sure he’s not alone.
Those 5000 men that were fed were thinking a
lot more like Peter than like God.

17. Jesus gives Peter a stunning rebuke.
NIV Jesus turned and said to
Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a
stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind
the concerns of God, but merely human
concerns.”
These disciples have a lot to learn about Jesus.
They have a lot to learn about what it really
means to follow this leader they think they
know.

18. What about you and me?
Do you think you know Jesus?
Have you got God’s plan all figured out for your
life?
For some of us, there are two plans for our
lives.
One is the plan of God to be saved by Jesus.
The other is the plan for the rest of our lives,
what we do, where we go, who we chose to go
with, our career, our entertainment…

19. Oh, Jesus is my Lord and Savior for church,
but the rest of my life is mine.
Oh, really?
Jesus wants FULL custody, not weekend visits.
He wants your heart, mind and soul.
Jesus wants your life.
He won’t settle for anything less than every part
of you.

20. NIV One of the teachers of the law
came and heard them debating. Noticing that
Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked
him, “Of all the commandments, which is the
most important?” “The most important one,”
answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The
Lord our God, the Lord is one Love the Lord
your God with all your heart and with all your
soul and with all your mind and with all your
strength.’

21. As they were walking along the road, a man said to
him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus replied,
“Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of
Man has no place to lay his head.”
He said to another man, “Follow me.” But he replied,
“Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” Jesus said
to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and
proclaim the kingdom of God.”
Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let
me go back and say goodbye to my family.” Jesus
replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks
back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

22. Jesus’ commitment to you is 100%.
To the death. Not just any death.
To death of the worst kind.

23. Listen to what a preacher told the congregation.
“Several of us will be going to see the film, “The
Passion of the Christ” this Tuesday. But I have
to tell you that the more I read about it, the more
troubled I am about seeing it. Not because it is
so brutal and bloody, but because of what it
says again about Jesus commitment to you.
I know, He tells me that if I desire to come after
Him, I must deny myself, take up my cross and
Follow Him!

24. I’m troubled because my life is very comfortable
right now.
I’m troubled because I know that I need to be
more committed to Jesus Christ as my Lord and
master, and I’m struggling to give up my plans
and just give full reign to His plans for me. I’m
afraid because I know that I trust in myself too
much.

25. I think He is going to show me that He loves me
so much that I wonder if I can bear it.
But I’m going.
And, actually, I hope He will shatter my
stubbornness and break my pride.
I hope He will call me to a new awareness of His
grace and a deeper commitment to following
Him.
And I hope I will see Him afresh and hear and
learn and obey.”

26. Jody Dean, a CBS news anchor from Dallas,
Texas wrote a review of “The Passion of the
Christ” film.
Here’s a portion of that review:
This is not a movie that anyone will “like.”
I don’t think it’s a movie anyone will “love.”
It certainly doesn’t “entertain.”

27. There isn’t even the sense that one has just
watched a movie. What it is, is an experience --
on a level of primary emotion that is scarcely
comprehensible.
Every shred of human preconception or
predisposition is utterly stripped away.
No one will eat popcorn during this film.
Some may not eat for days after they’ve seen it.
It hits that hard.

28. I can see why some people are worried about
how the film portrays the Jews.
They should be worried.
No, it’s not anti-Semitic. What it is, is entirely
shattering. There are no "winners." No one
comes off looking "good" -- except Jesus.
Even His own mother hesitates. As depicted, the
Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day merely do what
any of us would have done -- and still do.

29. They protected their perceived "place" -- their
sense of safety and security, and the
satisfaction of their own "rightness.“
But everyone falters. Caiaphas judges. Peter
denies. Judas betrays. Simon the Cyrene balks.
Mark runs away. Pilate equivocates. The crowd
mocks. The soldiers laugh. The centurion still
carries out his orders.

30. And as Jesus fixes them all with a glance, they
still turn away. The Jews, the Romans, Jesus’
friends -- they all fall.
Everyone, except the Principal Figure.
Heaven sheds a single, mighty tear -- and as
blood and water spew from His side,
the complacency of all creation is eternally
shattered.

31. The film grabs you in the first five seconds, and
never lets go.
The brutality, humiliation, and gore is almost
inconceivable -- and still probably doesn’t go far
enough. The scourging alone seems to never
end, and you cringe at the sound and splatter of
every blow -- no matter how steely your nerves.

32. Even those who have known combat or prison
will have trouble, no matter their experience --
because this Man was not conscripted. He went
willingly, laying down His entirety for all.
It is one thing for a soldier to die for his
countrymen.
It’s something else entirely to think of even a
common man dying for those who hate and
wish to kill him.

33. But this is no common man.
This is the King of the Universe.
The idea that anyone could or would have gone
through such punishment is unthinkable -- but
this Man was completely innocent, completely
holy -- and paying the price for others.
He screams as He is laid upon the cross,
"Father, they don’t know. They don’t know..."

34. What the director of this film has done is to use
all of his skill to portray the most dramatic
moment of the most dramatic events since the
dawn of time.
There is no escape.
It’s a punch to the gut that puts you on the
canvas, and you don’t get up.

35. You are simply confronted by the horror of what
was done -- what had to be done -- and why.
Throughout the entire film,
I found myself apologizing.
What you’ve heard about how audiences have
reacted is true.

36. There was no sound after the film’s conclusion.
No noise at all.
No one got up.
No one moved.
The only sound one could hear was sobbing.
In all my years of public life,
I have never heard anything like that.

37. I told many of you that Gibson had reportedly
re-shot the ending to include more "hope"
through the Resurrection. That’s not true.
The Resurrection scene is perhaps the shortest
in the entire movie -- and yet it packs a punch
that can’t be quantified.
It is perfect.
There is no way to negotiate the meaning out of
it. It simply asks, "Now, what will you do?"

38. Folks, we don’t need a movie to tell us the
gospel. We have a perfect message in the pages
of the Bible, God’s Word.
What we need is to hear and believe and follow
Jesus Christ and let Him have His way in our
lives… no matter what the cost.
What else is there to live for?
Jesus holds open before us the one and only
way to lasting life and eternal joy.
He is the way.

39. Are you a follower of Jesus Christ today?
If not, why not?
I know that there is a cost for following Jesus.
But I also know that there is a much greater cost
for not following Him.
Jesus chose the cross for you.
Now it’s time for you and I to choose.