What Are You Prepared To Do?- Part#1

Hello, this is Matt Slick from the Matt Slick Live Podcast, where I defend the Christian faith and lay out our foundations of the truth of God's Word. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth Network.

This is part one of a special two-part episode. Do you feel like you're on a religious treadmill? Do you feel like Christianity is just a system of rules and regulations?

I can do this, but I can't do that. Do you feel like your efforts to reach God, find God, and please God are futile? Do you feel like your faith is dead or alive? Today, Pastor Russ Andrews will walk us through Scripture to answer these questions. Join us on Finding Purpose, glorifying God by helping men find their purpose for living. For more information and to connect with Russ Andrews and Finding Purpose, you can visit us online at findingpurpose.net or connect with us on Facebook. Now let's listen to Russ Andrews as he teaches us how to be a Christian without being religious. I've entitled tonight's message, What Are You Prepared to Do?

We're going to be looking at Luke chapter 9, verses 18 through 26. Man, one of my favorite movies of all time is The Untouchables. Now, I shared this with our NC State group that showed up here yesterday. By the way, after spring break and 16 guys walked in, they wouldn't confess anything, but we didn't press them too hard. But anyway, none of them have ever heard of The Untouchables. So I've got to say, how many guys in here have never heard of The Untouchables? Clint, you never heard of The Untouchables? Guys, you've seen the movie, haven't you?

Yes, a cartoon, right? Guys, it's one of my top five or ten movies. Anyway, the movie stars Sean Connery, who by the way, my wife said I looked like him. I said, keep on seeing that baby, keep on seeing that.

Yes, she does. This is getting nowhere fast. Anyway, so guys, in the movie The Untouchables, Sean Connery placed, if you saw the movie, placed a disillusioned cop by the name of Jimmy Malone. And Malone has spent his career basically walking the streets and his face had the reflection of all the crime and corruption that he had witnessed in a city under the control of a mobster by the name of Al Capone. In one famous scene, Malone is sitting in the second row of pews in Our Lady of Sorrows Church and next to him is a young man who looks about half his age. In fact, he is half his age. And Malone is wearing a crumpled brown tweed jacket and he's got on great slacks and the young man is wearing a pin blue striped suit.

His face appears as innocent as an altar boy's. His name is Elliot Ness. This is a true story, by the way. The time is 1931 and the place, Chicago. You see, Elliot Ness was sent to Chicago by the FBI on one mission, to bring down this Capone to justice. Why did the FBI have to get involved?

Because the Chicago Police Department was totally corrupt. What Ness sees in Malone is the one cop he believes he can trust. However, see Malone is now faced with a decision. Is he just going to continue, you know, doing his beat and retire with his pension?

Or is he going to get reengaged in a fight that may cost him his life? So before Malone can decide what he's going to do, he puts forth a very important question to Mr. Ness. And this is why they were meeting secretly and discreetly in this church.

And as they're sitting there on this pew, in the back, four old women dressed in black are saying their prayers before a blaze of blue candles and so it's quiet in this church. And in this scene, Malone turns to Ness and begins to explain to him the rules of the game. You said you wanted to get Capone. Do you really want to get him? You see, what I'm saying is, what are you prepared to do? Ness says anything within the law. And then, what are you prepared to do, he asks. If you open the can on these worms, you must be prepared to go all the way. Because they're not going to give up the fight until one of you is dead. I want to get Capone.

I don't know how to do it. You want to know how to get Capone? They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue.

That's the Chicago way. And that's how you get Capone. Now, do you want to do that? Are you ready to do that? I'm offering you a deal.

Do you want this deal? Ness says, I have sworn to capture this man with all legal powers at my disposal, and I will do so. And then Malone looks up to heaven, and he sighs by saying, well, God hates a coward. He turns around and he jabs Ness in the side, and Ness shakes his hand, and he says, do you know what a blood oath is, Mr. Ness? Yes, he says. Well, guess what? You just took one. That's the scene.

Did y'all like my British accent? Well, let me just say this. The Chicago way is not, let me repeat this, not the way of Christ.

But the question is just as relevant. If you say, I want to follow Jesus, then let me ask you, I have to ask myself, what are you prepared to do? What price are you willing to pay?

In other words, what is the true cost of being a follower of Jesus Christ in today's world? And that brings us to Luke chapter 9 verses 18 through 26. I'm just going to go to verse 26.

Joe's going to pick up with verse 27. And listen, from this text, here's what I want to show you tonight. I want to show you the fourfold progressive stages, men, fourfold and they're progressive, stages that we each must take if we say, I want to be a man who follows Jesus. And here's stage one. If you want to follow Jesus, then you must be willing to confess Him publicly.

Are you willing to do that? Look at verse 18 through 20, verses 18. Here we go. Once when Jesus was prayed in private and His disciples were with Him, He asked them, who did the crowd say I am? They replied, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and still others that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life. And then He looks at them, I think He looks right at Peter and He says, but what about you?

Who do you say I am? And Peter answered boldly as he always did, the Christ of God. So I would contend that the first truth that Jesus is trying to lay out, He's got the 12 that He's trying to teach them. Because He's getting ready to be crucified and leave.

So He's preparing them for His departure. And He's trying to show them that the people have no idea who He is. And God, by the way, there were probably hundreds there who were following Him. These were all disciples.

But they're clueless just like most people today. They don't really understand who Jesus is. So let me ask you, who is Jesus to you? Who should He have been to them? Well, He should have been to them what the Bible says the Messiah would be like, the long awaited Messiah who's prophesied all throughout the Old Testament, who would be the anointed one man that God would send into the world to save His people from their sins.

But you see, here lies the problem. The people thought this promised Messiah was going to be someone like Moses. That's why they said maybe He's a prophet.

Come back to life like Moses. And remember Moses was the deliverer who rescued them from Egyptian bondage and what they want, they want another deliverer who's going to set them free from Roman rule. You see, what they failed to understand is that it's not what their Scripture said. You see, the Old Testament foretold of a suffering servant who would die a sinner's death, men, and that suffering servant would bear the wrath and the punishment of God as the Lamb of God. That's what the Old Testament is about, this coming Lamb of God. And this is why John the Baptist who was the forerunner, he was like Elijah. That's why they said maybe it's Elijah. Maybe he's the forerunner.

Well, the forerunner already come. His name was John the Baptist and he pointed out Jesus in the crowd wanted to say, look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. So he identified Him. But you see, the people were blind to this truth.

You know why? Because they wanted a Messiah of their own imagination. Just like today, people want a God of their own imagination. And they wanted their Messiah to be crowned without a cross. In fact, the cross was not even in their theology. But it was in God's theology. You see, the crossmen was God's plan before He even created this world.

Did you know that? 1 Peter 1, verses 18 through 20, and Peter's reflecting back on the Old Testament when he says this, for you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were deemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers. But with the precious blood of Christ, a Lamb without blemish or defect, He was chosen when? Before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last days for your sake. You see, even before God spoke creation into existence, the cross was in His mind. His plan, and you know what I think happened?

It didn't go exactly like this. I think He looked at His Son, the second person of the Trinity, in eternity past, and He said, Son, what are you prepared to do? And you know what the Son said, Father, not My will, but Thy will be done. The same conversation He had in Gethsemane when the Father probably once again said, Son, what are you prepared to do? Jesus was sweating blood droplets because of the stress on Him.

He had never been separated from His Father. He didn't have a speck of sin on Him. And He actually knew beforehand what kind of suffering He was getting ready to endure and humiliation. Do you know why He did that? Because when He was on the cross He was thinking about you and He was thinking about me.

He was thinking about Stefan, thinking about Tim up there, everybody in here. By the way, this is what the word redeemed means. It refers to the price paid to set a captive free, and that's exactly what Jesus did. When He shed His blood on Calvary, He paid down the ransom. He paid the price of redemption for you and me and set us free. And then I believe that Jesus picked out the leader of Peter 12 who was… Peter, was he a perfect leader? No, but he was a leader. And He asked him the most important question in man that every single person must answer, and that is this.

What about you? Who do you say Jesus is? You better get the answer to that question and square it away before you die. By the way, this is what believers' baptism is all about. And what it is, you see, Peter, what he did right there in the presence of whoever was there, the 12 at least, he made a public confession before men.

Have you done that? See, that's what believers' baptism is all about. That's why believers' baptism, if you go to the New Testament, it always happens after conversion. That's why there's no such thing in the New Testament of infant baptism. I mean, I got baptized as an infant because I grew up in a Methodist church.

I got an easement. I wasn't saved in that moment. I didn't know what I was doing. I don't even remember it.

I guess I was one year old. So it's really just a dedication service if I ever do one, but it's not… that's not baptism. Baptism happens after you're converted. And it's a chance for to stand up in a place like behind that screen and stand right… we had four or five here baptized this past Sunday right there behind that screen who stood up here before our church shared publicly that they have placed their trust in Jesus Christ. And it's an announcement to the world that you have… I have decided what?

To follow Jesus. What? No turning back.

No turning back. And Peter answered, You are the Christ of God. Now let me ask you something. Do you think when he said, You are the Christ of God, he really understood what he was saying?

No, really. But he had a mustard seed of faith just like the thief on the cross, and that's all Jesus needs to see. And he knew that what he didn't understand, he would learn and his faith would grow. And that's what happens when you decide to follow Jesus and you begin to study God's Word. Your faith is born and you just begin to blossom and grow. Jesus then turned to the twelve, and what he did in the next two verses is he basically shared with them what the true gospel is. Look at verses 21 and 22. Y'all see, isn't this stuff great?

I have more time getting to do what I get to do. I spent the last two days in my office just studying this text. Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone.

Why? And then he said, The Son of Man, here's the gospel, must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed. And the third day he be raised to life. This was news to them, really.

I want you to notice this first, three things out of these two verses. The reason he warned them not to tell anyone at this point was this. It wasn't time. His time had not yet come. He was on a divine time schedule. That's why when you look through the Gospel of John, he would say things like, My time has not yet come.

To his brothers, for you any time. You can go to Jerusalem any time, but it's not the right time for me. And then he said, you know, the hour is not here. And then when he finally gets to the Last Supper, he said, the hour is here. He was on a divine time frame, guys, and he wasn't going to get ahead of God, his Father. Is there a lesson there for you and me? Yes. When you walk with the Lord, you're in his hands and you want to walk with him day by day, step by step.

Don't fall behind and don't get ahead. Second, Jesus referred to himself with his favorite title. What was his favorite title, Jeff? The Son of Man.

Why did he use that title? Well, first of all, he was drawing it back to Daniel chapter 7, where the first reference of the Son of Man in the Old Testament. And because he wanted us to realize that the reason his favorite title is the Son of Man is it pictures what he had to do. He had to come to this earth literally, he had to humble himself, leave the glories of heaven, and become in the form of a man. He was born of a woman. And then he had to live a perfect life.

Why? In order to qualify as the perfect Lamb. Remember, without defect. And as the perfect Lamb, he would then be an acceptable sacrifice to a just God, his heavenly Father. And then then, he could bear our condemnation, our guilt, our shame, our sin. And in that moment on the cross, he received God's just punishment that was due to you and me. Third, before he endured the cross, the Messiah had to, according to Scripture, be truly humiliated.

That involved public shame, which included nakedness, mocking, ridicule, spitting, and brutality at the hands of a group of soldiers that were a lot like Putin. And they did everything but kill them when they flogged them. That's why the crucifixion only took six hours.

Most men it took two to three days. And all of this was prophesied in the Old Testament. And you know what the ironic thing is? The elders, the teachers of law, and the Pharisees, they pretty much had the Old Testament memorized. Memorized it.

Knew it backwards and forwards. You see, they were blind gods. They were blinded by their own man-made religion, just like many are today.

All these religious men had to do was to understand Isaiah chapter 53, where the prophet Isaiah who lived 700 years before the birth of Christ is looking into the future and he's describing what the coming Messiah would do and what he would be like. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him. And by His wounds we are healed. We all like sheep have gone astray.

Each of us has turned to His own way. And the Lord has laid on Him, God the Father has laid on Him the Son, the iniquity of His own. He was oppressed and afflicted yet He did not open His mouth. Remember when He stood before Herod who had cut off the head of John the Baptist?

He didn't say a word to him. There's a point, men, when God stops speaking to you. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter.

And as the sheep before her shears are silent, so He did not open His mouth. Yet it was the Lord's will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer. And though the Lord makes His life a guilt offering, He will see His offspring and prolong His days.

That's a reference to what? The resurrection. Because He poured out His life unto death and was numbered with the transgressors. Verse 12 says, For He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.

That's you and me. He intercedes for... He's the mediator. He goes between us and God so that we can be restored to the relationship that God intended for each one of us to have. Let me tell you what happens here in Luke chapter 9. In Luke chapters 1 through 4, the inauguration of Jesus' ministry begins with basically John the Baptist announcing that He's the Lamb of God. And then from chapter 4 through chapter 9, we see Jesus when He goes to Nazareth, you know, and He's rejected by His hometown, and then He begins His Galilean ministry which we've been reading about.

Well, now, guys, the hour is approaching. And so what He does here in chapter 9, He turns His face towards the cross. And at the same time, He begins to break the news slowly to His disciples that pain, suffering, and death all await Him.

And now He puts this question before them. What are you prepared to do? Many turned away. Go really John chapter 6.

The teaching got too difficult for them to accept it. And Jesus looked at the disciples and says in John 6, Are you going to leave Me too? Remember what Peter said? No.

Where else can we go? You're the one who possesses eternal life. Look at verse 23. He right now is getting ready to show them the cost of following Him. Then He said to them all, If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. So here's what we need to understand, men. Unlike what Joel Osteen is telling you, which is a bunch of you know what, following Jesus is costly.

It's far from a stroll through a park on a Sunday afternoon. When you make a blood oath with Jesus, which basically He's making a blood oath with you, you're all in. What you're doing in that moment is you're coming after Him. By the way, when it says come after Me, what He means literally in the Greek is to attach yourself to Me and be My disciple. That's what the disciples had done when they dropped their nets. They attached themselves to Jesus and said we're all in.

So men, let me just tell you this. Following Jesus involves total commitment. You can't be half-hearted. Either you're all in or you're really not in. This is stage two and it includes three aspects, deny, take up, and follow.

Let me explain this to you briefly. First, you must deny yourself. That is, must you be willing to turn away from your old way of life.

Have you really done that? Can people see a change in you? You're the same old person you've always been. See, many of the things we all have selflessly engaged in, like partying, getting drunk, hanging with the wrong crowd, trying to climb the ladder of success in order to make more and more money and to win the applause of men.

See, if our motivation is wrong, then all these things you must deny yourself because the world has always enticed you to get more. By the way, you can no longer expect to be in the cool crowd. As much as some of you fraternity guys, including me, you kind of want to, you know, you kind of want to be liked by your buddies, right? Well, you got to choose Jesus of sometimes friendship with your buddies. Remember in John 15, 18 through 21, Jesus says, The world will hate you because of My name.

So what are you prepared to do? Somebody once said, it was Anne Lotts, I think, that if you're not being persecuted, I wonder what kind of witness you really are. That's convicting. Here's second, you must take up your cross.

Let me just give you William Hendrickson's wonderful commentary on this. He says, The underlying figure is that of a condemned man who is forced to take up and carry his own cross to the place of execution. However, what the convict does under duress, the disciple of Jesus does willingly. He voluntarily and decisively accepts the pain, shame and persecution that is going to be his particular note. He has not someone else's lot because of his loyalty to Christ and His cause.

Luke even retained Jesus' insistence on making the taking up of one's cross a daily assignment. See, in America, it's so easy just to be a Christian and, you know, not much of a sacrifice, is it? Not much persecution. Try doing that if you're Jewish in Israel and you convert to Christianity. Well, try doing that in a Muslim country. In Jerusalem, I don't think they'll kill you. In Muslim country, they'll kill you. A father will kill his son.

I've read about it. He kills his son who turns to Jesus because what he sees that son doing is you're denying my name and you're deserting your family. Therefore, we desert you and they will put a price on your head.

What would happen if that happened in America? You know, if you show up to church, you're going to be arrested. How many people show up to church?

See, in China, they'll walk days and nights to get to an underground church to meet for five hours. Guys, I'm convicted by this, okay? I'm not preaching at you.

I'm preaching at me, okay? So what are you prepared to do? What am I prepared to do?

I've had about the easiest life you can have. Third, you must follow Jesus all the way to the end of your life. This means to trust and obey no matter the cost. One of my heroes is Jim Ellett. You know, he was at Wheaton College back in the late 1940s and he kept a journal, which I'm just amazed at his spiritual maturity.

When he was a junior in college, he wrote this on January 17, 1948. Jim Ellett wrote in his journal, God, I pray Thee, light these idol sticks of my life. In other words, take a match and light the weakness burning in me. And may I burn for Thee. Consume my life, my God, for it's Yours. I seek not a long life but a full one like You, Lord Jesus. And guess what? He died in his 20s in 1956 when he and four other men who all had the same calling went to Ecuador to share the gospel with the Alca Indians. And they were all speared to death. Elizabeth Ellett in her book, Shadow of the Almighty says, guys, if you haven't read this book, get it and read it. Shadow of the Almighty.

You can buy it on my website. When he died, here's what she's writing about her husband. When he died, he left little of value as the world regards values. Of material things, there were a few, a home in the jungle, a few well worn clothes, books and tools. The men who went to retrieve the bodies of the five missionaries brought back to me from Jim's body, his wristwatch and from the beach where they found them, the blurred pages of his college prayer notebook. There was no funeral, no tombstone for memorial, no legacy then she asked.

Was it just as if he'd never been? Then she says, Jim left for me in memory and for us all. In these letters and diaries, the testimony of a man who sought nothing but the will of God, who prayed that his life would be an exhibit of the value of knowing God. Being a Christian is not about being religious, but about having a dynamic, alive relationship with Jesus Christ. You've been listening to Finding Purpose with Pastor Russ Andrews, glorifying God by helping men find their purpose for living. You can discover more about finding your purpose in life by checking out the resources at findingpurpose.net or connect to Finding Purpose on Facebook. Pastor Russ would also like to extend a special invitation for you to join him and over 300 other local men to study God's Word together every Tuesday night at 7 p.m. in downtown Raleigh. Find out more at findingpurpose.net. This is the Truth Network.