Packing for the Right Expedition, Part 2

Again, this is an issue of priority. You're willing to say farewell to that relationship that would take first place, that activity, that decision. You're making this your highest priority that Jesus matters more than any other relationship. In fact, that's what will make you a better husband or wife or parent or son or daughter.

Jesus matters more than the approval or the applause of your world. Welcome to Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Davy. Last time, Stephen began a message that we didn't have time to complete.

We're going to conclude that message today. The message is called, Packing for the Right Expedition. When you pack for a trip, the climate where you're going determines what you pack. It's also important that we understand the cultural climate. Jesus wanted to make sure his disciples understood what the climate would be like when they arrived in Jerusalem. He wasn't going to be hailed as a king, so his disciples needed to understand the cost of following. There's a parent in a church, and they make it clear that the staff and ministries of the church should be designed to teach their sons and daughters well. The youth ministries need to be active and excellent, exciting, camping in the summers, retreating in the winters, Bible studies during the week, in the afternoons and evenings and on weekends. It's critical, they say, that their child be discipled by other godly adults, and in the company of other young people growing in Christ. And that church couldn't agree more. But then the child is invited to join a traveling soccer team, or baseball team.

And suddenly that occupies the afternoons and weekends throughout the year for several years. Whether they realize it or not, they've just declared that their love for their child's athletic development is actually greater than for their child's spiritual development. I could tell you over 36 years of ministry, those illustrations have occurred in this congregation by the truckload. You want to be a committed disciple of Christ, then arrange your love life in order of priority, and make sure Jesus is at the top of the list. Now the second principle could be stated this way, accept the ridicule and rejection of the world.

Now he's already said something like this back in chapter nine, we've dealt with it, I'll deal with it briefly here again. But he says this, whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. By the way, the phrase here come after me literally expresses the idea of getting in line behind someone. And the multitude is following Jesus, he's on his way to Jerusalem, they think they're on their way to a parade. Jesus knows it is essentially a death march, get in line behind me, it's going to be ridicule, it's going to be mockery, it's going to be rejection and death. Did you pack for that?

What's your expectation of the expedition? Jesus is quite literally saying here something that to them they would understand, get in line, and here I'll hand you your cross. Now be careful that you don't make this passage a list of requirements for salvation as some have without meaning to. They've made salvation a matter of justification by faith plus you got to be willing to do this, this, this, and this. Jesus is not giving prerequisites to salvation.

He's describing what we should be expecting along this journey. In fact, I think Warren Wiersbe put it so insightfully when he said on this phrase, this is not about sonship, this is about discipleship. This is what to expect if you follow Christ.

Now Jesus, again he's making a statement to his generation that they get it, a little more difficult for us. The cross represents the most humiliating death anybody could experience in these ancient days. It was the death no one wanted to die. In fact, a Roman citizen was guaranteed no matter what they did, mass murder or whatever, they would never be crucified. The cross wasn't just a tree of torture, it was the symbol of shame. We'll cover this more when we get into the crucifixion of our Lord, but we've sanitized it. They were stripped naked, they were flogged, they carried the cross beam, not this Latinized cross.

The stipe, the vertical piece was permanent. They crucified over a thousand people the year of our Lord's death. They loved to do this.

They developed the saddle which they would sit the victim on, a little block of wood which would extend the excruciating of this death and then if they wouldn't die quick enough or they were tired of it, they'd push him off the saddle and break their legs so that they would not be able to exhale. They understood the humiliation of this subjugation to the Roman Empire. See this, bearing your cross would be the clearest way, the most dramatic way of announcing in this world that your life was no longer your own. You are no longer in charge of your destiny. You can imagine people in Jesus' day hearing this, I feel like Jesus saying today, pick up your electric chair and follow me. Pick up a noose and put it around your neck and follow me.

That's what it meant to them. Pick up the symbol of humiliating death. Are you willing to be subjugated by me, your king?

And he isn't handing out crowns at this point, but crosses. You would think, well, no wonder the crowd is going to sin. I mean, nobody is that fanatical. Nobody is going to get on a death march. In fact, even those who said they would didn't, did they? But nobody is going to do this. I was watching this past week, a documentary about an annual marathon held in the Sahara Desert.

I'm amazed what people do with their spare time. I'll read about it, but hundreds of people show up. You've got wind storms, sudden sand storms, grueling miles through scorching heat, over these sand dunes for several days. There are markers at distances, but they can be blown over in a sudden sandstorm. Runners can get lost. They often run alone. Each runner, this is where I started reading for a piece of paper.

This is going to be an illustration for the shepherd's church here sometime soon. What do you know? Here we go. They had to fill out a form before the competition began, and they had to answer this question.

Get this. If you die during the competition, where do we send the corpse? You've got to be there, because people die. What's Jesus saying?

Fill out this form. Are you willing to die? In other parts of our world, when they have a baptismal service like we just had, they will ask that question to those coming out of the Islamic world. I've heard from our global workers, they will ask several questions just like we asked, but we don't ask the one they ask, are you willing to die for Christ?

Because that's very well what might happen. None of the Lord's disciples followed through with their commitment. They all abandoned them, even though they'd signed on, gave the address where to send the corpse. Only John will show up with Mary, the Lord's mother and some other women.

Everybody else runs. Later, after the Lord's resurrection, this band of disciples regather and keep in mind they're not getting saved again, but they are recommitting again because they've been unfaithful. It must have been very humbling. It must have been a shameful time, and it certainly was, especially with Peter, who will be recommissioned to know what they left him to go through alone. I think of John Mark.

He's a passionate disciple of Christ, so passionate that the early church recognizes he'd be a wonderful traveling companion on a missionary trip with Paul and Barnabas. So these three men take off on their missionary journey, but somewhere along the line, Mark grows disillusioned. He grows discouraged. It wasn't what he expected. It was harder than what he thought.

The polish wore off fairly quickly. The apostle Paul will later describe this expedition as including beatings, stoning, reviling, hunger and thirst. Mark evidently thought it would be mostly blessings he hadn't packed for blizzards, and he quit. He went home. Paul will describe it later in Acts chapter 13 by saying, Mark deserted us. He left us high and dry. Later, you can fill in the blanks and know that Mark evidently apologized, and I can imagine profusely.

Can you imagine? And Barnabas said, well, I think he's ready. Let's take him again. And Paul said, over my dead body. That's in the Greek language.

You can check it out later, but that's what he meant. In fact, it was such a sharp disagreement that Paul and Barnabas split up. Barnabas took Mark. Paul took Silas. And in God's providence, he wanted two teams, not one anyway, and he used their own failures, including Mark's, to multiply the ministry. And I think, by the way, it is intriguing to consider that the God of all grace will one day use Mark to write the Gospel of Mark. So let's be careful here. Let's get the point, but understand what Jesus is warning for those who will walk along with him and what to pack for the journey.

Number three, let me say it this way. Anticipate the cost of your commitment. Verse 28 and following, it gives a couple of illustrations for which of you desiring to build a tower, this is probably a vineyard tower they would build next to the barn to watch to make sure thieves didn't steal the grapes or the fruit. Which of you desiring to build a tower does that first sit down and count the cost whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him. They snicker behind his back, saying this man began to build and was not able to finish. Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with 10,000 to meet him who comes against him with 20,000?

Those aren't very good odds. If not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. That was wise. The repeated phrase here is first sit down or sit down first. The phrase refers to somebody doing just that, sitting down, deliberating, tallying the cost.

What's involved in the expedition? Being a disciple and saying yes, I'm going to follow Jesus to Jerusalem is not so much about emotion as much as it is about deliberation, calculation. Sit down and think it through. By the way, this isn't something you think through as you begin your walk with Christ. It's something you think about along the way. Why? Because the cost of following him today is going to be different.

It's going to be something different in that cost tomorrow, next year. So you are prayerfully, carefully anticipating the challenge. Finally, this fourth declaration here in principle form is this, assume your expectations will change along the journey.

About the time you think you've got it buttoned down, it all comes loose. So, he says, therefore, that is he's summarizing everything, therefore any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. Another statement where he categorically wraps everything up, therefore be prepared to renounce everything. Now, he's not saying renounce your spouse. He's already told us to love our spouses or our children or our parents or even the lost.

What's he saying here? Well, the idea of renounce, in fact, the original word carries the idea of being willing to say goodbye or farewell. Again, this is an issue of priority. You're willing to say farewell to that relationship that would take first place, that activity, that decision. You're making this your highest priority that Jesus matters more than any other relationship. In fact, that's what will make you a better husband or wife or parent or son or daughter when we follow Christ. You're making him the priority that Jesus matters more than the approval or the applause of your world because you're expecting something different, rejection, a criticism. You are making him the priority of any other desire. Simply put, nothing matters more than belonging to and walking with the Lord.

Everything finds its place underneath that priority. As I read about this expedition, I've mentioned for the next 20 years after the civilized world realized they were missing, expeditions set out, search parties for Sir John Franklin and 138 men. At this time, they had learned enough to know to prepare for blizzards and ice and snow. Piecing together what happened, they found one tent that had been erected on ice. It would be called Terror Bay.

They would name it. Inside were frozen bodies still dressed in their uniforms and in their pockets were chocolates and tea. Another group of frozen bodies was found officers this time huddled together and inside the jacket of one officer was his set of silverware engraved with his initials. He evidently didn't want to leave behind. Many miles south, another person was discovered alone. In fact, this individual came to represent this ill-planned rather tragic expedition. Listen to what one author wrote describing the scene. He was lying there, frozen, preserved, in uniform, trousers and jacket of fine blue cloth, edged with detailed embroidery, his officers sleeves with five covered buttons on each.

And over his uniform, he had on his blue topcoat and his black silk scarf was still neatly in place. They had packed for the wrong expedition. For these disciples on this expedition to Jerusalem, and by the way, for all of us, when you think about it, we are all heading for Jerusalem and the coming kingdom. What have we packed? What do we expect? What are our priorities? Let's honestly arrange our relationships according to priority. Let's humbly accept the rejection and ridicule of the world.

Let's carefully anticipate along the way the cost to the commitment. And when it's all said and done, be willing to say farewell, goodbye, to anything or anyone that might matter more than Jesus. Father, thank you for including in the record of scripture a reminder like this. So much of what we are challenged by as your disciples is related to what we expected to happen or what we never expected to happen.

That perhaps our expedition should experience cool breezes and more time to lounge in the library to find a solution within a year or two and to sail back to glory and fame. And here you are, Lord, handing out crosses, deeply convicting to me and I'm sure, Father, to this flock. So thank you for gathering us today and in your perfect timing bringing us to this text and allowing the Lord, your Son, to speak not just to them but to us. We thank you, Father, that we have an opportunity to demonstrate faithfulness to you and we can depend upon your grace when we are unfaithful to you. Enable us by your Spirit to go back into our world, perhaps having emptied a few things out of our suitcase today and repacked with something that we should have had or need to have because it's costing us something differently today than it did when we began the journey. Thank you that we've been able as a congregation, Father, to join the redeemed all over this planet who've taken these 24 hours at some point to celebrate the resurrection of your Son, our Savior, to sing about your attributes, your holiness, your creative power, your sovereignty, that you indeed from your throne determine every cool breeze and every blast of winter. Thank you that you've allowed us as well the crowd for mercy because we know as believers we're never beyond the need for that fresh deposit each day for your mercy is new every morning. We thank you for that and we thank you in Jesus' name.

Amen. That was Stephen Davey, the president of Wisdom International. This message from Luke 14 is called Packing for the Right Expedition. We have a free resource for you, especially if you're new to reading or studying the Bible. Do you find the Bible intimidating? Maybe you've read parts of it but struggled to understand what it means. Maybe you've never even attempted to read it because, well, it's just too confusing. If so, you're not alone, but it is possible to understand the Bible.

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