The Cost of Discipleship

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Sabbath School Lesson

For

March 29, 2014

Presented by Larry R Evans

Introduction

Jesus faced a problem, a crisis that few seemed to recognize.  His time on earth was short.  The creation He had formed at the beginning of time was deteriorating before His very eyes. Those created in His image now presented but a faint picture of who God really was.  He knew that their distance from God and His plan for them would ultimately lead to their destruction. Sin was contagious and rampant. Prophets before Him had been rejected and many had been killed at the hands of those whom God had hoped would be saved.  Jesus now came in Person yet what was He to do? How could He possibly reverse the momentum of sin?  Sin, He knew, would crescendo to such a point in His own lifetime that He would be executed by those whom He came to save.  Three years seemed short and it was!  Could He effect a change, a lasting change, that would continue after His departure from earth?  Where should He begin? 

He began by choosing a band of undisciplined but teachable disciples.  It was a motley group and each had his own agenda and unique background.  Eventually, however, with His mentorship others would describe His disciples as unschooled, ordinary but courageous men (Acts 4:13) who with Christ’s on His abiding Presence turned the world upside down! (Acts 17:6) How did He do it? It began with a cost that He was willing to bear and one they, His followers, would choose to bear as well.  We refer to this life changing experience as “The Cost of Discipleship.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a book bearing the name of this week’s Sabbath School lesson, The Cost of Discipleship.  In April 1945 Bonhoeffer was hanged after an imprisonment in a Nazi concentration camp—just 23 days before the German surrender.  Bonhoeffer recognized both the fundamental difference between Jesus and the disciples and the challenge Jesus faced:

“Between the disciples and the better righteousness demanded of them stand the Person of Christ, who came to fulfill the law of the old covenant.  This is the fundamental presupposition of the whole Sermon on the Mount.  Jesus manifests his perfect union with the will of God as revealed in the Old Testament law and prophets.  He has in fact nothing to add to the commandments of God, except this, that he keeps them.” (p.137)

But Bonhoeffer doesn’t stop there, however. “It is not enough for man simply to recover right ideas about God, or to obey his will in the isolated actions of his life.  No, man must be re-fashioned as a living whole in the image of God.  His whole form, body, soul and spirit must once more bear that image on earth.  Such is God’s purpose and destiny for man.  His good pleasure can rest only on his perfected image.” (p.338)

So with these thoughts in mind, the question remains:  How did Jesus go about preparing His disciples for His departure and for continuing His ministry on earth?  In answering this question we must keep in mind that the life of Jesus was a constant demonstration that there were only two things that really mattered in his life—God and people!

Reflective Questions

1.     A focus on family can be a deterrent to true discipleship?  (Gen. 12:1-3; Lk 14:25-27)  True or False?

It became necessary in order for Abraham to be separated from the association of his early life as they would interfere with the training the Lord proposed for him.

What Abram Left       (Gen. 12:1)	What Abram Received (Gen. 12:2,3)
Country	Great Nation
Family	Great Name (Recognition)
Father’s House	God’s Blessing Upon Family Lineage (Legacy)

There was a danger with his dependent love upon Isaac. The test with Abram and Isaac was a continuation of the Lord’s testing and refinement of Abram.  The lurking danger of “idolatry” was always near. It forced Abram to make a decision and it allowed him to bring God back to the center.  Otherwise, Abram may have loved his son even more than God.  By trusting in God, Abram not only saved his own life but Isaac’s as well.

2.     The cross that Jesus tells His disciples that they must bear is different for each person? (Lk 14:26; Lk. 18:18-30)  True or False?

Note the text references.  In one case it is family.  In another it is money.

3.     Being disciplined is where the hard work of a disciple begins. (Matt. 11:28-30) True or False?

The struggle is not in doing but in yielding, in “coming” to Christ.  See Bible passage.

4.     The real cost of discipleship is the “surrendering of self.” (Gal. 2:20) True or False?

It may be the “cost” but it is also the reward.  Instead of trying to tack-on good behavior to an old world view value system and new beginning offers a new basis and new orientation for a believing and trusting faith.

5.     Does the Creation account in Genesis 1 and 2 have any relationship with the discipleship Jesus sought to establish on earth? (Compare Gen. 1:1,2 with Jn 1:1-13 and Heb. 11:1-3, 5-6).  Yes or No?

In Genesis 1:2,3 we are told that “In the beginning was God” and the “earth was formless and empty, and darkness was over the surface of the deep . . . “ To that “darkness” God brought forth light and separated the light from the darkness.

In the Gospel of John it is as though we have another creation account.  This time it begins with “In the beginning was the Word.”  John identifies the Word as Jesus (v.14) and through Him “light shines in the darkness.” (v.5)  John then adds the same hope we find in Gen. 3:15 when he says, “and the darkness has not over come it [light].”  Here we find the hope, victorious hope, over the darkness.  These words depict the struggle of every person (light vs darkness) but they also are the assurance to every would be disciple that they cn overcome the darkness in their lives!  The Creator is the Redeemer and the power of creation is also the power for recreation!

A Concluding Thought

"Nothing is apparently more helpless, yet really more invincible, than the soul that feels its nothingness and relies wholly on God." -- Ellen White, Prophets and Kings, p. 175

“We are justified by faith. The soul who understands the meaning of these words will never be self-sufficient. We are not sufficient of ourselves to think anything of ourselves. The Holy Spirit is our efficiency in the work of character building, in forming characters after the divine similitude. When we think ourselves capable of molding our own experience, we make a great mistake. We can never of ourselves obtain the victory over temptation. But those who have genuine faith in Christ will be worked by the Holy Spirit. The soul in whose heart faith abides will grow into a beautiful temple for the Lord. He is directed by the grace of Christ. Just in proportion as he depends on the Holy Spirit's teaching he will grow (MS 8, 1900).”  {6BC 1109.1}