Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How to Answer Jesus's Calling | Learning to Follow Jesus | Luke 9.23-24

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. And I'm Patrick Miller. Right now, we're learning how to follow Jesus by working our way through the Gospel of Luke. If you've never seen the satirical website, the Babylon B, either on Twitter, Facebook, or wherever you see that kind of stuff, you really should take a look at it. It's pretty funny. They poke fun at everyone, especially Christians. And in one recent headline, it said this, Bible lacking sinners prayer returned for full refund.

Starting point is 00:00:40 And in this fictional article, there's a disgruntled customer that says, I searched the Bible through and through and couldn't find anything about a magic prayer I could lead people to say in order to get them instantly into the kingdom and forever more secure in their eternal salvation, no matter what their life looks like afterward. Obviously, the point is that this disgruntled customer couldn't find the magic prayer in the Bible because there isn't one. But there are a lot of people who believe that magical prayer is there. A lot of us have been taught to think of a Christian as one who has prayed a prayer, confess their sins, ask Jesus to be in their heart. And while that's not entirely wrong, I'm not sure it's entirely right. That kind of thinking leads us to ask what's the minimum amount you have to believe so that God will let you into heaven. And that kind of thinking makes the rest of the Bible's teaching optional, at least as far as being a Christian, is concerned.

Starting point is 00:01:43 But can you imagine Jesus ever say anything like that? Can you imagine Jesus saying, hey, you don't really have to do anything I say. As long as you ask me to pay for your sins, then we're all good. That's not how Jesus talks, is it? What you hear Jesus say to people is something pretty different. What he usually says to people is, follow me. Can you imagine saying to Jesus? Jesus, I trust that you've paid for my sin,

Starting point is 00:02:14 but I don't trust you enough to actually do what you say. I trust you with my eternal life, but I don't trust you with my everyday life. I'll use your blood to avoid hell, but I'd like to retain control of my own life. We either trust Jesus and respond to his call to follow him or we don't. Imagine if on our wedding day I had said to Christine something like, hey, I just want to know what's the absolute least I can do and stay married to you? Like what's the lowest level of commitment that you'll accept in our marriage?

Starting point is 00:02:49 What's the minimum requirement for maintaining this relationship? If I had said that, you could imagine that it would have been a very important. very short ceremony. The Bible never defines the word Christian. Jesus never even uses the word Christian. Instead, it uses the word disciple. In Acts 1126, it says the disciples were first called Christians at Antioch. So what are you? Well, I'm a disciple of Jesus. Now, some people started calling those disciples Christians. A disciple is a follower. A disciple is a learner. A disciple is some someone who is pursuing Jesus. So is a disciple different than a Christian? Like our disciples' overachievers, are they the Navy seals of Christianity? Is discipleship optional, like leather

Starting point is 00:03:39 seats or a sunroof? No. Disciples are Christians, and Christians are disciples. A disciple is someone who is in the process of following Jesus. Or here's how Jesus puts it earlier in the Gospel of Luke. He says, the student is not above the teacher. But everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher. So disciples are becoming like their teacher, and disciples of Jesus are becoming more like Jesus. So that brings us to Luke chapter 9, verses 23 and 24. He said to them all, Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.

Starting point is 00:04:20 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. So there's that word follow again, and of course also the word disciple. If you want to be Jesus's disciple, then we must follow him. But it says more than that. It says that we must take up our cross daily and follow him. There's a word that you might be familiar with, but my guess is a lot of people aren't. And it's the word cruciform. Cruciform means to come in the shape of a cross.

Starting point is 00:04:53 So maybe you've been in churches before that are in the shape of a cross? What about a life that's in the shape of a cross? A cruciform life? That's what Jesus is calling us to. Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow me. In other words, just as Jesus went to the cross, so that's what he's calling us to. Now, you might come to the opposite conclusion. You might think that since Jesus suffered so much, we don't have to suffer.

Starting point is 00:05:28 He suffered so that we could live in comfort. He died so that we could live. He was mocked so that we could enjoy the praise of people. He gave up the treasures of heaven so that we could lay up treasures on earth. He is the king, and we get to sit in positions of privilege. But this verse says just the opposite. it. Jesus calls us to follow in his steps, to be like him, to like him, live the cross-shaped life on a daily basis. Yes, Jesus was a substitute in that he died in our place, but his death was also a pattern or an

Starting point is 00:06:05 example of how we should live. We follow a humble savior, a crucified king. Our Lord did the will of his father. He washed the feet of his disciples. He resisted the temptations of this world. He endured the shame of crucifixion. Jesus did not assert his authority to escape trouble. He didn't defend himself before his accusers. We follow Jesus who voluntarily laid down his life for his enemies. Every day, by faith, we must pick up our cross and follow Jesus, because it's through dying to ourselves that we find the only life worth living. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content,

Starting point is 00:06:49 please subscribe and give us a rating. That helps others find this podcast more easily. Also ask yourself who you could share this podcast with. Texting an episode to a friend or family member is a great way to help them grow spiritually. If you want to go deeper, check out our show notes for book recommendations.

Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How to Answer Jesus's Calling | Learning to Follow Jesus | Luke 9.23-24

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.