Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor every day.  And a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores, and longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man’s table ….  Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried.

In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom.  And he cried out and said, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.”  But Abraham said, “Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony.”

And he said, “Then I beg you, father, that you send him to my father’s house – for I have five brothers – in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.”  But Abraham said, “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.”  But he said, “No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!”  But he said to him, “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.”  (Luke 16:19-25, 27-31)

This passage is not a parable.  It does not have the “markings” of a parable.  It does not use common, daily life (known to the audience) to teach eternal, spiritual realities (unknown to the audience).  Furthermore, proper names are used (Abraham and Lazarus), something absent from parables.  No, what Jesus is presenting here is an actual historical event, something that happened to two real people … who lived during a real period of time … in a real place.

What should immediately catch our attention is what is on this rich man’s mind after he dies … and what is not.  Did you notice?  Not one thought, not one word, is given to his investment portfolio.  For the first time in his life, the temporal had finally taken a back seat to the eternal.  Not once does this man bring up what had captured his heart while on earth.

Instead, the salvation of his five brothers is the one thing that consumes this man’s heart.

The most impassioned plea for the Gospel to go forth to others – recorded in all of Scripture – came from a man in Hades.

Dear friends, I really doubt that Cornelius Vanderbilt is wondering right now what happened to his wealth.  Or J. P. Morgan.  Or John D. Rockefeller.  Or Henry Ford.  Or Andrew Carnegie.  According to this passage, when these men lost consciousness on the day of their death, they awoke to find themselves in their eternal home.  Whether in Paradise or in Hades, these former billionaires are fully conscious of their present situation. What thoughts do you think filled their minds on the day they died?  And what do you think they are thinking about right now … and will be thinking about 10,000 years from now?

I’m not a betting man; but if I were, I’d bet a year’s salary that the status of their wealth hasn’t crossed their minds once.  Probably, the one thought that does fill their minds – and will forever fill their minds – is this:  “To what did I give my life?”  “For Whom did I live?”  Whether in eternal glory or in eternal torment, they’ve got a lot of time to think about that … and will be thinking about it long after their stocks and bonds have turned to dust and their mansions have collapsed into rubble.  No matter where these billionaires are, what they are focused on right now is this:  the eternal consequence of the lives they lived on earth.

So, to what are we giving our lives?  If to the Kingdom of the eternal One, immortal, invisible, the only true God, then we are in the company of the wise.  But if to anything less, then we are in the company of fools.

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Now large crowds were going along with Him; and He turned and said to them, “… Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.”  (Luke 14:27)

The Lord does not make it easy for someone to be His disciple.  When He declared the high cost of following Him, He did so plainly; and He did not pull His punches.  He raised the bar far above what most churches today expect of their membership; and He will never lower that bar to turn the Christian life into something that is merely comfortable and fun.  To the contrary, He made several bold demands that would discourage the half-hearted from continuing:

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.  (Luke 14:26)

So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.  (Luke 14:33)

These requirements are not to those who are half-in and half-out but to those who are fully in.  He does not give His followers the right to retain certain privileges and make certain demands.  Far from making it easy for them to “sign up” on the dotted line, He calls upon each of us to make a careful assessment before declaring our willingness to follow:

For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?  Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, “This man began to build and was not able to finish.”

Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand?  Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.  (Luke 14:28-32)

In counting the cost of discipleship, Jesus tells us to evaluate whether or not we “have enough” of something to fulfill our commitment.  But what exactly are we to have “enough” of?  What is it going to take to follow Jesus?  Because whatever it is, we can be sure that it is not man-made.

• Motivated by the Holy Spirit, we are to have a strong resolve to be holy and pure … to obey the will of the Father, come what may.  (And in doing so, our joy is made full.)

• Empowered by our faithful God, we are to have the spiritual grit of perseverance to remain true to Christ, even when every fiber of our being tells us to throw in the towel.  (And in doing so, our endurance is tempered.)

• Fortified by the Word of God, we are to have an immovable steadfastness to face the relentless onslaughts of an evil that is coming at us from three different angles (the world, the flesh and Satan).  (And in doing so, our claim of Christ’s victory is vindicated.)

• Strengthened by our trustworthy God, we are to have a tenacious faith to cling to Christ when our situation is painful and does not make any sense … and (especially) when times are joyful and prosperous.  (And in doing so, our confidence is made unshakeable.)

This is the “stuff” that makes up the “enough” Jesus demands of His disciples.  This is the weight – and joy – of the cross our Master expects His followers to carry.

But this is not the focus of many of today’s churches (at least the ones in North America and Western Europe).  The emphasis in our churches is something far inferior to Christ’s demands.  Instead of being willing to turn large crowds away by presenting the high-price of discipleship,

the push of today’s leadership is to attract large numbers of excitable crowds

with extravagant programs … and a flurry of activities … and performing (applause-receiving) bands and choirs … and plush, multi-million dollar complexes … and high-tech presentations.

As a result many believers today are left with the impression that their involvement in all of this “stuff” is what it’s all about … that this “I-want-to-feel-good-without-making-a-commitment” is what “following Christ” looks like.  But this is not what “following Christ” looks like.  A believing community whose one, all-consuming passion to be holy and faithful and submissive to the Father’s will has been largely replaced by a Church that expects to be entertained.  As a result, we have diluted the call to “carry our cross” with something superficial … something impotent … something one mile wide but one inch deep … something that is shiny and glossy and tinsel-like.

This is what today’s so-called “seekers” are looking for; and as a result, it is what much of today’s leadership is giving them.  But where can we find such a vision for the Church in the words of Christ or in the writings of the Apostles or in the historical record of the early church?  No, this emphasis is foreign to what Christ expects in a follower and in a local church.

What was – and is – His expectation is men and women who mean business with Him … who are dead serious about yielding their wills to the will of the Father, no matter what sacrifices and trials and persecutions and temptations and oppressions they encounter.  Theirs is an unquenchable hunger and thirst “to know (Christ) and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death in order (to) attain to the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:10-11).  Those who commit themselves to this daily death-to-self will gladly lay aside the shallowness of today’s hoopla to savor the deep, deep joy of their Master, the One with Whom they are crucified and the One to Whom they cling.

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And He was saying to them all, “… Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.”  (Luke 9:23-24)

Others May, But You Cannot

If the Spirit of God has brought you to the resolve to be really like Jesus, He will draw you to a life of crucifixion and humility, and put upon you such demands of obedience, that you will not be able to follow other people or measure yourself by other Christians.  And in many ways He will seem to let other good people do things which He will not let you do.

Other Christians and ministers who seem very religious and useful may push themselves, pull wires, and work schemes to carry out their plans; but you cannot do it.  And if you attempt it, you will meet with such failure and rebuke from the Lord as to make you sorely penitent.

Others may boast of themselves, of their work, of their success, of their writings; but the Holy Spirit will not allow you to do any such thing.  And if you begin it, He will lead you into some deep mortification that will make you despise yourself and all your good works.

Others may be allowed to succeed in making money or may have a legacy left to them.  But (it) is likely God will keep you poor because He wants you to have something far better than gold, namely, a helpless dependence on Him, that He may have the satisfaction of supplying your needs day by day out of an unseen treasury.

The Lord may let others be honored and put forward and keep you hidden in obscurity because He wants you to produce some choice, fragrant fruit for His coming glory which can only be produced in the shadows.  He may let others be great but keep you small.  He may let others do a work for Him and get the credit for it; but He will make you work and toil on without knowing how much you are doing.  And then to make your work still more precious, He may let others get the credit for the work which you have done and, thus, make your reward ten times greater when Jesus comes.

The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch over you with a jealous love and will rebuke you for little words and feelings, or for wasting your time which other Christians never seem distressed over.  So make up your mind that God is an infinite Sovereign and has a right to do as He pleases with His own.

He may not explain to you a thousand things which puzzle your reason in His dealings with you.  But if you absolutely sell yourself to be His … slave, He will wrap you up in a jealous love, and bestow upon you many blessings which come only to those who are in the inner circle.

Settle it forever, then, that you are to deal directly with the Holy Spirit, and that He is to have the right of tying your tongue, or chaining your hand, or closing your eyes in ways that He does not seem to use with others.  Now, when you are so possessed with the living God that you are, in your secret heart, pleased and delighted over the Holy Spirit’s peculiar, personal, private, jealous guardianship and management over your life, you will have found the vestibule of Heaven.

Written by G. D. Watson (1845-1924), a Wesleyan Methodist minister, evangelist and missionary.

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And they [a large crowd that had just witnessed Jesus cast out a demon] were all amazed at the greatness of God.  But while everyone was marveling at all that He was doing, He said to His disciples, “… the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men.”  (Luke 9:43-44)

Have you ever noticed that it is just as easy to jump off a “bandwagon” as it is to jump on one?  No matter how exciting the movement or how large the crowd, enthusiasm often gives way to desertion as the novelty of the latest trend wears off and the reality of its cost sinks in.

This was true about the crowds that followed Jesus.  As long as He provided them with a free meal plan and health care program, they flocked around Him with enthusiasm.  But when He began to speak to them about the demands of discipleship, those same people stopped “marveling at all He was doing,” and their numbers began to thin … considerably.

Simply put, to follow Jesus is to obey Jesus.  That is what a disciple is:  one who does what his Master commands him.  He is resolved to abandon his own self-interests to fulfill the will of God.  And though the life of a Christ-follower is a blessed journey, it is not downhill.

If anyone wishes to come after Me (Jesus), he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.  For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.  (Luke 9:23-24)

In Luke 9 we find Jesus walking toward the Cross that awaited Him in Jerusalem.  Along the way, He was approached by three individuals who said they wanted to follow Him.  Jesus gave it to them straight:  “Before you decide to follow Me, you need to know what you’re getting into.  You need to ‘count the cost.’  Because what I am calling you to do is to come and die with Me.”

You and I would do well to carefully consider what He meant.

The Realities of Discipleship – Part I

(1) “Hardships are to be expected.”

As they were going along the road, someone said to Him, “I will follow You wherever You go.”  And Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” (Luke 9:57-58)

We should let that sink in for a minute.  “Even animals have homes.  But I don’t.  And if you follow Me, do not expect a lifestyle of ease.”

There is something very radical within the soul of a disciple.  While others are grabbing for all the goods and comforts of life, an entirely different craving has grabbed hold of the Christ-follower.  His all-consuming passion is to obey the will of his Master … a pull that has so captured his heart that his former desire to have all this world has to offer has faded, even down to its bare necessities.  This is more than a mere willingness to sacrifice.  It is a heart-guided resolve to de-clutter one’s life in order to be fully given to the cause of Christ Jesus.

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  (Matthew 6:19-21)

This is the reality of discipleship:

One cannot follow Jesus and pursue a life of self-centered ease at the same time.

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The Realities of Discipleship – Part II

(2) “Most of the affairs of life must be given to others.”

And He said to another, “Follow Me.”  But he said, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.”  But He said to him, “Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:59-60)

We should consider the nature of this man’s request.  He was not asking to be excused from following Christ until he returned from a family vacation.  He was asking for permission to make arrangements for his father’s funeral.  Afterwards, he would follow Jesus.  This was no small responsibility this man believed was his to fulfill!  And no doubt, others did too.  But notice Jesus’ response:

“Let those who are spiritually dead bury those who are physically dead.”

That is, “As much as possible, let those who are of the world oversee the affairs of the world.  But as for you, devote your attention to the Great Commission.”

When one follows Jesus, he is going to find himself removed from what everyone else is busy doing.  Rather than giving himself to the many temporal affairs of a dead world, he is to offer all that he is and all that he has to advance the eternal affairs of Christ.

We are not told what this man chose to do.  But we can imagine what would have happened if he gave the oversight of his father’s burial to his “spiritually dead” relatives and followed Jesus.  No doubt, he would have been marked for life as the one who “abandoned his father.”  Nevertheless, this is the reality of discipleship:

One cannot follow Jesus and busy himself with this world’s affairs at the same time.

(3) “Allegiance to Christ takes priority over family relationships.”

Another also said, “I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say good-bye to those at home.”  But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:61-62)

Jesus demands total devotion of His followers, even over one’s oldest, most cherished relationships, his family.  Even these bonds should not distract the disciple away from the will of his Master.  Yet tragically, it is not uncommon for a believer to allow the will of a family member to turn him away from the will of Christ:

• “We were not able to worship with the church last Sunday because our family from out-of-town was visiting with us … and they did not want to worship our Redeemer.”

• “We did not go to the mission field because our parents / in-laws did not want us to take their grandchildren away from them.”

Jesus, however, demands preeminence, over children … over grandchildren … even over Mom and Dad.

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.  And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.  (Matthew 10:37-38)

This is the reality of discipleship:

One cannot follow Jesus and view his family as his supreme priority at the same time.

Let there be no deception among those who claim to be Christ’s disciples:  No man has two hearts … only one.  Therefore, no man can have two all-consuming passions … only one.

No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.  (Matthew 6:24)

This is the reality of discipleship.  It is a lifestyle that demands nothing less than one’s death to self interests.  It requires one to let go of what everyone else is grabbing for in order to cling to the will of the Father.  It is the daily life of an undivided allegiance.

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