Latest / Madison Church of Christ Bible Studies / reDiscovering Jesus | Jason Helton | Week 09

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reDiscovering Jesus | Jason Helton | Week 09 · Madison Church of Christ Bible Studies

• 0:00
  Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to God. If you're ever in the Madison area, we'd love for you to stop by and study the Bible with us on Sundays at 5pm or Wednesdays at 7pm if you have questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, you can find us online@madisonchurch.org be sure to subscribe to this podcast as well as our Sermons podcast. Madison Church of Christ Sermons. Thanks again for stopping by. I hope this study is a blessing to you. Luke Chapter 14 is where we're going to spend our time tonight. We've been talking in this class about who Jesus is and of course, the sermon series that's been going on at the same time, I hope has been complementary. We started off thinking like, hey, we need to make it like, overlap and just go a little deeper. And then we realized that, well, Brandon and Andrew realized that they would need to have their sermon outlines done 13 weeks in advance. So we didn't do that. So we did it this way. And we have been trying to focus on who Jesus is. And they've been focusing on following Jesus for the last three or four weeks, though we're going to kind of switch gears and not just talk about his titles, his names, and not just what it means to us, but some. Some very specific sayings that he said, some challenges that he issued, and then specifically going a little bit deeper in the idea of him as our Messiah, as our Savior. Tonight we're going to look at what it means to carry a cross, to be a crossbearer. And this is what I would say is one of his most maybe daring instances that he has in the words that he says. So let's read together, starting in verse 25 of Luke 14. Now the great crowds, now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost? Whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid the foundation, he is not able to finish it? All who see it begin to mock him, saying, this man began to build and was not able to finish. Or what king going out to encounter another king in war will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with 10,000, to meet him who comes against him with 20,000. And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation, ask for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. Salt is good. But if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. There's a lot that's being said in this short little dissertation that he has with this crowd of people. So let's break it down a little bit. Let's start at the beginning part here. The first verse, 26. If anyone has come to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. First question tonight is how should we understand the statement from Jesus in verse 26, specifically the hatred part? Yes, sir.
• 3:15
  Speaker B: Jimmy, the way I understand it is that you're not necessarily. You know, it's not talking about hate in a vacuum, like I hate you, but it's talking about in regard to him and his commandments that you are to love him and follow so closely to him that everything else is not, you know, is hardly even secondary. That you don't. That it doesn't matter what it is, that you don't let anything get between you and his principles and his commandments and Him.
• 3:52
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 3:53
  Speaker B: That you're not necessary. You don't really hate your mother and father and wife and children or anybody. But when it compares to your love for him, it's as if it's.
• 4:06
  Speaker A: Okay. Ben.
• 4:09
  Speaker C: CS Lewis said it's like a teacher. He said he viewed it as failing you. You know, you look. Teachers grading a paper reads it. It's not a. You know, it's a flunk. And it's not necessarily that it's terribly awful. It's just. It's not what's. What's there. And his point was you compared your love for God with love for anybody else. Anyone else fails. Because your love for God has got to be. And that's how I've always.
• 4:43
  Speaker A: Sort of a Palestin comparison kind of thing.
• 4:46
  Speaker D: Later it talks about knowing I can serve two masters. Either you'll hate one or love the other. I think that connects kind of, like, if I put. My children are my masters, you know, they're dominating, they're wild. You know, I begin to resent them and hate them because I'm not giving all my focus to God to lead me to love. Does that make sense?
• 5:07
  Speaker A: Yeah, that's a great point. Excellent point. I don't know if it's right, but when I read this, what I really think it's saying is that your father, mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, all have sin in their lives. You have sin in your own life. When it says hate, it's hating the sin in those people's lives because. Because otherwise it doesn't really conform to other passages in the Bible where it says to honor your father and mother and to love your neighbor as yourself. But if we take that in the context of the sin that's associated with those people, then you can't be committed to discipleship, and you have to turn your back on sin and go a different direction. That's why it's. Yeah. It would be contradictory then if it was a true hatred of personal things. Go, Jimmy. And then Cam.
• 6:02
  Speaker B: I think we can also put this in the context of what comes earlier in that chapter with the parable of the great banquet. Somebody has invited all these people, and the one guy's, well, I just bought this field. I need to go out and see it. So I can't come to your banquet. Or I just. You know, I just married a wife, so I need to see to her. I can't come to your banquet. I can't do this. Because. And, you know, he's likening the banquet to the kingdom of heaven. And he has. And he's saying, you know, following it up by saying, you got it. You gotta. It's like, you gotta hate all that stuff. That stuff does not matter compared to. Compared to what I'm. What I'm trying to give you.
• 6:45
  Speaker A: Okay. Cam?
• 6:46
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 6:46
  Speaker E: I like what Rachel said. I think it's. I think it's about what you follow. Right? And talking about. They're following him. Right?
• 6:55
  Speaker A: Right. They're following and says this.
• 6:58
  Speaker E: And the beauty of it is that if you follow him, the relationship that you have with all of those is whole. Right. That's the beauty of it, is that you're really. If you love him, your love for them is not going to go away. Because if you're serving him, then everything else takes care of itself. But if you serve anything other than him, if you follow anything other than him, whether it be your mother, father, wife, whatever it is, Then you're not following him.
• 7:28
  Speaker A: And that's a pretty common theme in his teaching. A couple of phrases that I really liked from some commentaries that helped me with this one said it's a radical detachment from competing loyalties. And then a Semitic idiom of preference meaning to love less. Several commentators reference that this is a very common Jewish phrase that means to put in comparison to love less. If you look over in James, James chapter one, let's see, so if verse five, we'll start there. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith with no doubting. For the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double minded man, unstable in all his ways. That phrase double minded man literally means divided loyalties. And so that's the similar kind of what's going on here. There's one loyalty kind of to what Cam is saying. There's one loyalty, and that's to Christ. That's to this new kingdom that he is bringing into existence at this stage of his life, that he is preaching the gospel. So for us today, there is one lens through which we see all of life. There's a common thread. Everybody was saying with your relationships with your parents, relationships with your kids, relationships with your job, with your spouse, even, you know, your own, the way you view yourself. There's now a new lens for seeing each of those, every square inch of life. It's not our church life, our ballpark life, our school life, our work life. Right? We talk about this a lot. Just it's one lens for all of that. It's now completely different way of seeing the world. And I think a lot of times my actions reflect that. Maybe Jesus came teaching like a new way to be good, like a new moral ethic. But that falls grossly short of what the Gospel is. It's a completely different way of life. So the hatred that we have for all these other things is to make sure those are on a lesser plane than our complete and utter devotion. Because now our complete identity, our purpose, all of those things are squarely and firmly in Christ. He kind of clarifies this a little bit. If you read Matthew verse 10:37, he says, anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. Anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of Me. So this is again, that kind of putting it all of the priorities. You know, we use that word, priorities. And I think it was Mike Winkler or somebody years ago corrected me and said, well, actually we kind of Americanized and called it priorities. The original words just probably were T. Like it's singular. And that's the whole point, is that it's not a list of important things. It's what is the most important thing. And I think that's at the heart of what Jesus is saying here. There's one priority, there's not a list of multiple. Because that one priority then is what adjusts everything. Like it's the left align when you hit that in Microsoft Word. It puts everything in the order that it's supposed to be in the structure that it's supposed to be. When our devotion to him is what it's supposed to be. So let's look at verse 27. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. When I was, oh man, probably like fifth or sixth grade, I really wanted, I wanted an earring, a cross earring. Hear me out. Deion Sanders, Ken Griffey Jr. Michael Jordan, alright, those were the heroes. That was like prime 90s at that moment. Like at that time, the cross was, it was something that people wore. You know, it still is, it's still a part of common jewelry. How do we, should we feel a way about that? I guess as a Christian, what does the cross represent to us? And this is not to call anybody out if you're actually wearing one. I apologize, I probably should have scanned the audience first. But what does the cross mean to us? Like, what is that symbolic of? Typically, when we refer to the cross this weekend, Easter weekend, people all over the world are looking at that as like the resurrection of Jesus and really thinking deeply about that. The cross led to the resurrection. So the cross leads is like the doorstep of the greatest moment in human history. But the doorstep itself is a really painful, difficult thing. I don't think that wearing a cross around your neck or dangling from your ear, maybe Deion Sanders may be different, but if it's, you know, if you're wearing it as jewelry, I don't, I'm not thinking that that's a sinful thing, but do we sometimes. Well, at that time, then, Ben, to your question earlier, clarification, what would it have meant to them? What would have been synonymous with, and
• 11:57
  Speaker C: I didn't realize this until I was an adult about how, you know, the cross was an offense in the first century One of the biggest problems that Jews and Romans had when they first heard the gospel story was you're following this crucified guy because crucifixion, like if you were a Roman citizen, you couldn't be crucified. It was the most shameful, embarrassing, terrible. You were put on the cross, pardon the bluntness. You put on there naked. Everybody would laugh at you and spit at you and throw stuff at you. And you were the worst of the worst.
• 12:30
  Speaker A: It was an intentional spectacle.
• 12:32
  Speaker C: Yes, that's. And, and again, I don't think it's wrong to wear a cross either now. But, you know, the first few centuries, no Christian would have worn cross, right? Because they, that was, it was a shameful thing. And, and so it, you know, this, this passage, as I grew, came to mean a whole nother thing because, you know, he's. He's saying, unless you voluntarily die, you can't really follow me. Unless you would voluntarily just die, you can't be my child.
• 13:05
  Speaker A: Yeah. That symbol was not just like a symbol of death, but it was a sentencing of shameful murder. You know, it was a legalized murder. But for the worst of the worst, it was symbolic of, for us today, like child sex offenders or just the group of people that you think are just the worst of the worst in prison. Like, okay, this is reserved for them. Right. I've heard it said, you know what, if you had like, the electric chair hanging around your neck, you wouldn't wear that today, that kind of thing. So maybe that's similar kind of to the way it was viewed. The question that I'm getting to here is when he says, you have to bear your cross, you have to carry that cross. He hasn't died yet. So when he says this, they don't know exactly what he's talking about. But it was common at that time for people who had been sentenced to die on a cross to then also have to lug the object of their, their death on their shoulders in a very public way. I think the public element here is significant because this is not the kind of death sentence that was just kind of hidden away. This was like front page of the Jerusalem news. You know, like, this was the. I mean, it was physically viewable. Men, women, children could see people who died on a cross, like it was a visceral reminder of he bad. And yet he's telling them before he is on that cross, before it is a symbol of anything remotely close to Christianity or the way he's saying, you're going to have to carry your Cross. Whoever does not to bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. How does this statement of you have to bear your own cross? How is that different than just like everyday inconveniences or is there a difference? What is he getting at here? I guess the first part question what is he getting at to his audience? And then we'll apply it to us. Yes sir.
• 15:06
  Speaker E: Augustine said that apart from sin we have nothing.
• 15:10
  Speaker A: So since we are world sinners, we, we really need the really silver.
• 15:19
  Speaker E: And Jesus is the Messiah.
• 15:21
  Speaker A: So we can even we have every day. Sometimes we have hardships, but we can still have the peace and hope in Christ. Yeah. The ability to endure those hardships all come through him. Yep. Excellent. Yes sir. I mean maybe this is shallow, but it's a total die of self, right? It's kind of, it's kind of going back to what we were just talking about. But you're dying to self and you may endure additional hardships because of that.
• 15:53
  Speaker C: Right.
• 15:53
  Speaker A: You're not doing what you want to do, but you're doing, you're carrying other people's burdens. You're putting yourself out there to spread the gospel and might get ridiculed as well. So you're taking on, I don't know, the hardships that you, they're still the same that you might endure because you totally died to self.
• 16:13
  Speaker E: Okay, go back to the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus talks about people hating you or defending my name. So that's not everyday hardships, right? That's not stuffing my toe, that's not having to pay taxes. So it's not those things that are just part of everyday life anyway. Again, I think it goes back to when you put his things name on. It meant a whole lot more for the early Christians than it means for us for the most part. There are certain folks in Nigeria and other places that are suffering for his name as well to that effect. But I think it's either you're willing to wear his name and take everything that goes with that, or you're not.
• 16:58
  Speaker A: So if in our current context of Madison, Alabama, United States of America, what does that look like then? If we're not going to have to physically die in new efforts, there are people in the world sometimes that do have to do that. Still today, this is not an ancient challenge. This is relevant to every age. Right. Of Christianity. So then what does that dying of self look like, Chris?
• 17:24
  Speaker E: For me it's just doing the awkward part of our lives that we just for whatever reason, we always find Awkward. Talking about him and spreading his name. We brought up before, we'll talk about a football game or any sporting event or, you know, concert we've gone to with friends. But we don't bring up Christ. And so if we can get over that hurdle every day of being able to bring it up somehow, some way, whether it's to work people or to, you know, other friends, like that to me, is bearing the cross. It's bringing him to your life every single day.
• 18:02
  Speaker A: Yeah. If circumstance determines the strength of our faith, then maybe our faith is sort of circumstantial. Right, Heidi?
• 18:09
  Speaker D: So, you know, like, it's really easy right now in our life stage. Our kids, Ella Jo really wants to do Girl Scouts, but all the tricks that we can find are they do it on Wednesday nights. And we just, we. We're not going to do that because that is going to make it. You're going to have to pick one or the other, and then we're not going to pick that over class. We're learning more about God. And so I think that, that when our kids see the priority, when our people around us see what the priority is, and they start to notice maybe a difference.
• 18:45
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 18:46
  Speaker D: And so it's when we are different and people notice a difference, then that, that changes things. Because a lot of times being different is not easy. It'd be really easy for us to say, yeah, let's do. Let's do Girl Scouts. It'd be fun, you know, and maybe we just haven't found the right one. But that's just a table that pops in my mind.
• 19:10
  Speaker A: I feel like each new chapter of life, and not even each chapter, like every new extracurricular for your kid, for example, like you're talking about, is the question of what is our priority. We had a makeup game last week that had been rained out, and they rescheduled games on Sundays and Wednesdays. And so for us, it was okay. Are we going to go? Well, it was at 5:30. So we told the coach, we've got a window of time that we're available, but at this particular time we have to leave and we have a prior commitment. And so this was the second or third time that's happened for Owen's team. And so the conversation came back up and I was really proud because he's the one that kind of initiated this time. He said, why do we go to Bible class instead of baseball? I said, well, that's a really good question, buddy. We as a family, Mommy and I, have talked about this years before. We even started playing baseball or any sport. We just decided there are going to be some non negotiables in our schedule. Things that we think are really, we've already committed to. And we've committed to them because we think that being in class on a regular basis or being in worship environment with other people on a regular basis is what's best for us spiritually. So every family makes those decisions and every family has to recalibrate. Right? And it's. Owen is not as inquisitive as some of our other children. And so that was an easier conversation than other times. But to me it's really like having to articulate something for my child is a really, really good exercise for me as an adult to find out whether or not I really believe what I believe or really understand what I say. Understand. Because I can read you the ready reference super quick and easy, right? I've been memorizing that since a kid. But then when the seventh time, you have to go to the seventh level of why and still pick out the actual answer to that. That's a good thing, right? That's a good thing for us. It's not easy thing, but it is a good thing for us to do. And I think that's kind of at the heart of this as well. Jesus would make it. He made a horrific politician. This is a terrible come vote for me speech. Because it's not a vote for me speech, it's a come follow me speech. And those are different. We can never mix those two up. We get come vote for me speeches every four years and then every two years, right? Those are not the same. Even if those things try to quote some of his words or incorporate some of his principles, that's an earthly thing. And so we can have as many opinions and stuff as we want on that. But when it comes to the come follow me, well, there's one way, one truth and one life. And so I think as we get older, we have to be really careful and make sure that we can clarify the difference between those two for our kids. Because there are things in life that are really hard, but there are some of those common inconveniences that I sometimes like lean in as. Like, oh man, this is persecution. No, it's not. It's just a, it's just a part of it. Like it's not. But I also fall in the trap of trying to like measure persecution or hardship sometimes. And that's a, that's a terrible rabbit to chase, right? Because what's difficult for me is not difficult for this person and vice versa. So we find ourselves then comparing each other. It's the same teenage comparing their behind the scenes on social media versus my. Excuse me. Comparing their highlight reel versus my behind the scenes. Like I do that, you know, as an adult, sometimes more than I would like to admit as well. That's not what Jesus is saying. He said there's one standard and that one standard bids you to come and die. Again, that's not a come vote for me. If you vote for me and I win, then you have to hate your father and mother. Okay, I'll pass. Next. But this is not that. This is very much, very, very different. Go ahead. I think it's important that we're also not doing it alone. Right. Like you just mentioned.
• 22:42
  Speaker C: Right.
• 22:42
  Speaker A: Some things are easy for you and some things aren't. Right. Other person can help bear your burdens. Right. And the same for them. That strength of bond or find those people to kind of, you know, within the church. Right. That we have those stronger relationships and we can help pull each other away. Yeah. The Full Youth Institute had a book four years ago now, I think, and it's called Three Big Questions. So it's the three big questions that every teenager is asking. And it boils down to identity, community and purpose. Who am I, where do I belong and what am I doing? Basically, I think those are three really important questions that most adults are also seeking answers to. A lot of us, a lot of people that we work with and that we're around. And I think the answers to all three of those questions are found in Christ, in scripture and in his people in the church. And I think it's up to us to articulate that. So one of the questions with this particular passage, when it comes to dying to self, how do we articulate that to a fourth grader, a second grader, a preschooler? I'm realizing that instruction is really important, but I too often lean on instruction. Sticking with Little League when you tell a kid, alright, so you're going to swing, you're going to rotate your hips, you're going to bring your hands through the ball and you're going to extend all the way through the swing. Go ahead. Good for you, buddy. That's great. You know some words? Yeah. Do it. You got a bat. That's good. Cool, man. Yeah. Look at the moon. That's also nice, isn't it? As well. We're right here, buddy. Right here. Showing them and modeling that is always going to be more effective than using all the words. That you find on an Instagram reel or YouTube short, right? When it comes to the life part, we got to have both. I think we have to live it out, and then we have to draw their attention. Sometimes the instruction comes second. That's actually what I'm learning most, is that instruction comes after the event so that they know how to rightly identify those things. Like, this was a difficult thing that you did. This was a hard thing. So when we say you can do hard things, that's what I'm talking about, buddy. You can do that. Why can you do that? Well, because God loves us. I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me. So sometimes the instruction comes second. I almost always lead with instruction, and you can't see, I use a lot of words. Six of them will resonate, so I need to choose wisely. But I like to go with 60 or more because I don't know it Just sometimes I don't know how to say it either. Jesus did both. Jesus, in these moments, Be quiet, man. You're on my baseball team. You got to stop it. Coaches got to stick together. Jesus has over and over again, in all these instances, is saying, deny yourself, take up your cross. Deny yourself, take up your cross. In just a few chapters, he's going to model it. He's going to completely deny himself. He could have called 10,000 angels to destroy the earth, but he died alone. For you and for me, he physically takes this cross up the mountain. They shove it into the hole in the ground. He lays there, the most powerful being on earth, and allows nails to be driven through his hands and to his feet, and then to be hung up there in the most horrific, mortifying way possible. And yet I have the audacity to say, but, God, why can't I do my life this way? That's where I find myself going, oh, okay, I'll have a seat. The subheading in the ESV here is the cost of Discipleship. And Dietrich Bonhoeffer borrowed the title, I guess, when he wrote his book the Cost of Discipleship. Why is it worth it? That's the last question we have on here. There's a good question there. What is it like to have dual citizenship? If no politician would ever run for office with a speech like this, why is it worth it to follow Jesus? He actually keeps his promises.
• 26:23
  Speaker C: Ben, one of the most effective personal workers I've ever known in his Bible study, after he's gone through the Gospel story, how we respond to it, he goes here to Luke 14 and almost tries to talk the person out of being baptized.
• 26:39
  Speaker B: Almost.
• 26:40
  Speaker C: If you heard him, you almost go, what are you. What are you doing? Yeah, but he's. He's trying to say, look, this is not gonna be easy. I'm not asking. I'm not asking you to do stuff. And it's gonna be wonderful fun. And, hey, we're gonna. It's gonna be. But it's gonna be worth it. But you gotta decide. Are you willing to go through this?
• 26:58
  Speaker A: Yep. I guess my last question here is one we need to ask ourselves every day. Is it worth it? Why is it worth it to follow Jesus? Why is it worth it to die to self? And then the next step for us, because we have the privilege and honor of mentoring and stewarding these little tiny humans that only act like us when we don't want them to, is to then make sure and tell them and show them over and over again why it's worth it, why we do love Jesus even though we fall short. It's because we desperately need him. And so do they. And so that is the call for every parent that's ever lived. And every day is to live that out for yourself. But then for the next, for them to understand that we love him so much that it almost looks like hatred in comparison. Any other level, any other relationship in our life, well, that's the expectation for them as well. And if they've never seen that, they've never experienced that, then how can we expect them to know that? Let's pray. God, we love you. And we thank you so very much again for this time together tonight. Thank you for the opportunity to pause, to reflect, to glean from your scriptures, to listen to each other, to be encouraged and lifted up by each other, to. Through Christ, through your word, through your spirit. I pray that you continue to bless us as parents, help us, Father, to fall on our knees every day in submission to you, and help us to do it in a way that our children take notice. That they will follow, Father. That they will follow not just the times that we get it right or even the times we mess up, but they will follow you. That we will not stand in the way. That we will simply be a conduit, a connection, reflection of who you are in their lives. And every memory they have of us will lead us, lead them closer to you. God, we love you. We thank you so very much for Christ and the forgiveness we have through Him. It's in his name we pray. Amen. Love you guys. Have a great week.