Station Manager’s Desk

“Are You Sitting on the Fence?”

 

 



What is the cost of discipleship?  What is the cost of following Jesus?  Is it as much as not following Jesus?  Pastor Colin Smith asks the question this week: Are you on the fence?

In three different places in the Gospels, we read the story of Jesus telling his disciples what it will cost to follow Him…and also what it would cost if we didn’t.

Mark 8:34 When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 35 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? 37 Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? 38 For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

Jesus starts here by saying "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me..."  Mark 8:34 (NIV)
 
What's the risk of following Jesus? You come to church and you think about this: Should I really commit myself? Maybe I will, maybe I won't. Some of us have been on the fence thinking about this for a long time. What is at stake in this decision?
 
Jesus does not say that following Him might involve a cost. He says, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself." (v34) Following Jesus means saying "no" to self and "yes" to God. Following Jesus means saying "no" to the flesh and "yes" to the Spirit. Following Jesus means saying "no" to comfort and "yes" to ministry.
 
Following Jesus will cause you pain that you could avoid if you were not a Christian. Jesus makes this very clear. If you want an easy, comfortable life in this world, don't become a Christian. There is no small print here. Jesus takes the small print and makes it a headline.
 
With this decision, your life is at stake.  Jesus goes on here to say "For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it." Mark 8:35
 
Everything in this life that you try to keep, you lose in the end. What you lose in this life for the sake of the gospel, you keep for eternity. You can live for yourself, but then, when your life is gone, it is lost and you won't be able to get it back.  
 
If you live for yourself, a day will come when you will wish that you could have your life back in order to live it for Christ. But that won't happen. It can't happen. Whoever wants to save his life will lose it.
 
With this decision, your soul is at stake.  Jesus says "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?" Mark 8:37
 
Your life will never end. The world as we know it will end. It will be burned up with fervent heat and God will make a new heaven and a new earth. The world as we know it will end, but your life will never end. Even if you take your own life you will not end it. You just move it to another place.
 
The cost of following Jesus is great, but the loss of holding back is far greater. What you lose is your own soul. Hell has many pains, but one of them must surely be to know what you might have become-to be wasting away, when you could have been enjoying the life of son or daughter of God.
 
Finally, with this decision, your eternity is at stake.  Jesus says "If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels." Mark 8:38
 
Imagine the son of God being ashamed of you, when He comes with his holy angels.  You have been embarrassed about Him. You didn't want your friends to think that you belonged to Him. Now He doesn't want anyone to think that He belongs to you.
 
What's at stake? Your life, your soul, and your eternity. Are you giving these great decisions about following Christ the right level of importance in your life? You are concerned about sports, and relationships, and career and money, and travel, and leisure. But Jesus is speaking to you about your life, your soul and your eternity.  What level of attention are you giving to this?