Word & Deed: The Motivation for Discipleship

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Word & Deed, We are Disciples: The Motivation for Discipleship
with Travis Aicklen

This sermon explores the challenging aspects of discipleship, focusing on the concepts of Jesus as judge and believers being judged according to their works. The message emphasizes that these truths should motivate us to live lives of self-denial and obedience, with a view toward the eternal rewards that await us.

Key Points:

• Jesus is judge: This truth is central to the gospel and should not be overlooked or minimized.
• We are judged according to our works: While salvation is by grace, our works will be evaluated and rewarded by Christ.
• Our motivation for discipleship: The coming judgment should motivate us to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Jesus.
• The promise of reward: We can anticipate being welcomed, honored, and rewarded by Christ for our faithful obedience.
• The importance of works: Our works are evidence of our faith and will be taken into account at the judgment seat of Christ.

Reasons why Jesus is the perfect judge:

• Infinite perfect knowledge
• Empathy and understanding
• No ulterior motives
• Willingness to rescue us
• Impartial and just

Obstacles to discipleship:

• Fear of judgment: Remember that Jesus is a loving and merciful judge who desires our good.
• Misunderstanding of grace: Don't let a misunderstanding of grace lead to complacency or a disregard for obedience.
• Focus on the present: Keep an eternal perspective and focus on the rewards that await us in the age to come.

The sermon concludes with a call to examine our hearts and recommit ourselves to a life of discipleship, motivated by the coming judgment and the promise of eternal rewards. It also invites listeners to receive communion and to pray for freedom from shame and a greater understanding of God's grace and judgment.

Transcript

Hey, really glad you're here. 

I wanted to give you a heads up that next week we're going to receive an offering. On the first of the month we go old school and we pass the baskets. How many of you grew up in a church having to pass the baskets? 

Yeah, so at the first of the month we always do like a first fruits offering, we pass the baskets. But what I want to encourage you to do is in the back of one of the seats in front of you, not every seat has a pouch, but one of the seats has a pouch, there's these pledge cards. And if you've been thinking about praying about considering giving to the Amigo Row project, what I'd love for you to do is to take one of these home with you and pray. 

Maybe pray with your spouse. And what I would love for you to do is if you have children and involve your children in this, because what we're doing is investing in our future and a legacy here. So what I'd love for you to do is to come next week with your kids and dump this in the basket with them, teach them about sacrificial giving, teach them about praying and obeying what the Lord speaks to you. 

So haul one of these home, come back, throw this in. We're needing to know where people are at. We don't want to go forward flying blind. So if you've got an idea of what you want to do, please let us know so that we can kind of have an idea of where we're at. 

Couple more things that didn't make it onto the video. There will be prayer to conclude our time. If what Kanoa shared resonated with you and you're having a hard time letting go of something that you're clinging to, there'll be people here willing to pray with you at the end of our service. And last but not least, during the meet and greet, I had the opportunity of greeting someone who I did not expect to see from Costa Rica, the Dixons. We support them on the mission field and Jeff is here in the house today. 

Jeff, would you stand? Sorry, man. This is what you get. So that's no random guy you're talking to. Who's this random guy? This is someone we support on the field and have for now decades. Yeah, so we love him, love them, love the work that's going on through Students International. And if you have questions, find him. What's really cool about this morning is the text that I want to teach on Kanoa felt prompted to read during worship. So let me read it to you again. 

Hopefully you'll hear it for the first time. Matthew 16, 24, then Jesus said to his disciples, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world yet forfeit their soul? 

Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done. We're taking the month to remember that we are disciples. Glenn throughout this definition last week of what a disciple is, and I want to read it again because I loved it. A disciple is one who learns from another. Such learning was not limited to the acquisition of knowledge about the Torah, but involved an overall worldview and the practical interpretation of such knowledge into everyday life. 

I was listening to something I just thought it was hilarious. They were saying, knowledge is knowing that a tomato is fruit, but wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad. And so there are both those components to our discipleship. There is the acquisition of knowledge, certainly. But then how many of you know people who know a lot, but they don't, you're like, I don't want to live like that person. 

They know a lot, and you're like, hey, look, I'm glad you know a lot. I don't want to live like you. I want to actually live like this guy who knows less. So we know that knowledge is no ticket to the good life, but wisdom is. So it's not that we will be or that we might be or that we're on our way to being. We are disciples like right now you're being discipled. Right now you're learning from somewhere, from someone. Right now you're following hard after something or someone. 

Right now you're being discipled. And our hope is just to remind us that we're all here because we want, Jesus is our guy, right? We want to follow him. We want to learn from him. We want to live like him. 

We want him to be the one who is leading us. I think it's super interesting in this text, it says Jesus says to his disciples, if you want to be my disciple. And there is in the broader context of the book of Matthew, there's a line being drawn right here. 

It's kind of insulting, right? These guys have left everything to follow him. And then he says to them, hey you, my disciples, if anybody wants to be my disciple, they must deny themselves. How would that feel for you? You know, I can imagine myself saying to my kids, hey kids, if anybody wants to be my kid, you know, it's kind of like, oh, my bad. Or your boss, hey employees, if anybody wants to be my employee or your coach, what does this mean at halftime? When he says, hey players, if anybody wants to play on this team, this is the play we're running, right? 

There's kind of a line in the sand moment. And I think this is really helpful, because I think what Jesus is saying here is just because you've been my disciple in the past, and you've been obedient in the past, doesn't necessarily mean you're going to be that in the future. And so from time to time, as followers of Jesus, we need to stop and ask ourselves the question, are we actually following Jesus? Just because that's what you've been doesn't mean that's what you're going to be, just because that's the way things have worked doesn't mean that's what it's going to be going forward. 

And so this is one of those moments. And Jesus draws this line in the sand and he says, hey, if you're coming after me, you must deny yourself. If you're coming after me, you're going to consistently practice self-denial. Notice there's only two options here on the menu that Jesus presents. You deny yourself and you follow him, or you deny him and you follow yourself. There's no third way here. 

And I want to speak today about our motivation for discipleship. I don't know about you guys, but I'm not good at self-denial. I'm not good at making sacrifices. I'm not good at loving my enemies. I'm not good at generosity. I'm not like these things don't come naturally. What comes naturally to me is to save my own life, not to lose it. 

And when things start to cost, you know, just like when I've been doing a little bit of exercising, and it's so interesting that when the exercise starts to burn, I like find some new way to do it, because I don't, I want to exercise, but I don't want it to burn, you know. And we're so good at that, aren't we? So good at finding the lane of least resistance. So I've been looking at this, and I think we've heard this text before, most likely, or you've maybe heard something like it. But what's interesting to me is I've read this passage a number of times, and it's only been recently that I've been noticing that the only way that this pencils out is with a view of the long tomorrow. That short-term sacrifice and self-denial is only worth it. And Jesus knows this. 

He says, lose your life. And I'm sure his disciples are like, why would we do that? Why wouldn't we just live our best lives? 

Why wouldn't we live into that hashtag blessed life? Like what, what are you saying? And Jesus says that the only way that this is going to kind of pan out, the short-term self-denial, your sacrifice is incentivized by the promise of reckoning. For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they've done. This is a much lesser known part of the passage, and Jesus expects this to fuel his disciples towards a life of self-denial. 

Right? The person who embraces the hard should do so with a vision of glory, that the person who takes up the cross of self-denial should anticipate a crown. This is what Jesus expects. 

And so I want to talk about our motivation as disciples. Like why? Why would we die to self? Why would we ever bless those who persecute us? Why would we submit our lives to the Lordship of Jesus and to others? Why not just do your own thing? Why would we serve instead of getting served? Why would we ever humble ourselves in an argument? 

Why would we die to the part of us that resists the ways of Jesus? I want to remind us of two concepts today that I'm just warning you are a little bit of a stretch. Not because they can't be backed with Bible, but because you don't hear about them very often. And these are meant to motivate discipleship. And the first is this, Jesus is judge. I know you've heard that he's your savior, but he's also judge. And the second thing is that we are judged according to our works. 

I know that you've heard that you're saved by grace and what Jesus has done, but the Bible is also very clear that you are judged and rewarded according to your works. Are you feeling nervous yet? Oh, what's this? Father, I want to ask that we could hear your word to us, and that we'd actually understand not just your words, but your heart on these matters. And everyone said, amen. Jesus is judge. The first thing you should probably be asking is, where the heck is that in the Bible? Well, you've probably heard that the primary content of the gospel, the good news, is that Jesus is Lord. 

Have you ever heard that? There's massive overlap between this idea of Jesus is Lord and Jesus is judge, right? Because lords have laws. And lords have ways of enforcing those laws. And lords have friends and they have enemies. And lords determine they decide right and wrong. 

lords decide who's allowed to stay and who needs to go and why they need to go, right? So when we say Jesus is Lord, we're getting very close to saying Jesus is judge and Jesus as judge is central to the gospel. When the apostles first preached the gospel in the Acts, they told people upfront that part of the good news was that Jesus was judged. 

Look at this. Acts 10 verse 42, and he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. Acts 17 31, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed. 

And of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. Acts 24, as he reasoned, this is Paul trying to win over a Roman ruler. And he doesn't do so by sitting down with this Roman ruler and saying, hey, Jesus can be your personal savior and he can help you with what you're doing here. He says, as he reasoned about righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment, Felix, this Roman ruler was alarmed and was like, go away. 

When I get an opportunity, I will summon you. Paul's sitting with him and saying, you're going to account for the way that you've ruled. You're going to have to answer for what you've done. And he's like, well, I'm going to done away with you. 

You need to go. For this reason, the author of Hebrews, he reminds his audience that one of the elementary principles, like this is in the foundation's course, and judgment is in the top six. Look at this. Therefore, let's leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. Let's move. We've laid that foundation of eternal judgment. So let's move on from the new member's class. So one of the first things that the author of Hebrews would have expected a person to understand is that Jesus is judge. In the summer, we worked through the Apostles Creed, which is the earliest creed in church history. And it's a summary of core Christian beliefs. And in it is this, he ascended into heaven. He seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. 

From there, he will come to judge the living and the dead. Remember, this was foundational. These were core Christian doctrines. So those who first announced the gospel said Jesus is coming as judge. It was elementary to the author of Hebrews. 

And lastly, it was essential enough to include in the first creed, which should be forcing you to ask the question, how come we don't talk about this more? How come we're not hearing about this more? And I want to say this, those who have suffered and are suffering grave injustice do talk about this more. I know that our justice system is far from just, but I've learned in reading about kind of history, and I've learned in my travel that we might be better off than most. I know it's not perfect, but it does seem that we have someone to appeal to, and I've been in situations where you just pay the bribe. 

There's no one to appeal to. And if you're here and you've suffered grave injustice, then you do and have focused on these passages most likely, that there's coming a day when Jesus is going to decide, and he's going to deal with this broken world by setting things right. And you long for that day, you anticipate that day, because you've suffered injustice. People of God have for many years lived, occupied, oppressed, under, with no sense of justice and wanting to appeal to him. 

It is happening, trust me. Also, you should know about our context, about our culture, is that not only does this theme seem to emerge when the people of God feel oppressed and have no higher authority to appeal to, but in our culture, in our context, the only virtue that is left is tolerance. It's the highest value, which is not just an acceptance that other people have other beliefs, but it's that no one opinion can be any truer than any other. That's our new definition of tolerance. And we claim to be inclusive, and everybody's life verse is, do not judge. Didn't Jesus say that? 

And it is in the Bible, but right before that, Jesus says, you should judge a tree by its fruit. So he's not condemning all judgment. He's not condemning all discernment. He's condemning a self-righteous discernment. What he's saying here is when you judge, don't look down your nose at somebody when you do it, because chances are, you know, there's three fingers pointing back at you, that kind of thing. 

So we don't like judgy people, and we don't want to be judged. But really, is that really where we're at? Is that really the truth? I'd like to present to you two pieces of evidence that that's something we say, but that's not something we do. 

The first piece of evidence is this. How many shows can you watch that involve judging people? How many shows? We used to just watch a show where it was like a cooking show. We used to just watch a cooking show. Now we watch a cooking show where Gordon Ramsay puts the food in his mouth and then spits it out. And he's like, I can't even swallow that. 

I won't. And we're like, oh, we love it. And it's not just cooking, fashion design. 

Your survival is being judged. Singing, dancing. There's a sword making show where they're like, that's a nice piece. 

Listen, we love, it's entertainment to us to watch someone be rewarded because they performed or be exposed because they didn't. And we're like, what are you doing tonight? Oh, I'm going to watch that. Number two, we have an unending appetite for watching those who have done wrong get what they had coming. It's unending. We're on the fifth John Wick movie. 

Five. It's been a decade of him killing people. He's been killing people for 10 years. Why someone killed his dog? But it wasn't just any dog, right? His wife who passed away gave him that dog. 

And so that dog represents something. So we hope that for another decade, he just keeps killing thousands of people. But we love these films. Like you mess with the wrong dude, right? Like we love it. We love it. 

So you can say like, oh, I'm tolerant and I don't like to judge and I just, I, hmm. How about your kid? This is a third piece of evidence that I just thought of. Your kid leans back in their chair. You say, don't lean back in your chair. Your kid then goes over in their chair. 

Is your first move like, are you okay? Oh, I'm so sorry that that happened to you. No, you go, I told you not to do that. And that's what you deserve. Then you feel sick. You're like, no, man, that felt bad. And so you're like, and are you okay? And that's not like where you go. 

That's not where you go. And here's what I want to say to you. This is not a bad thing. I think that it's a God thing. 

I think that you want justice because you've been made in the image of God. Now it's all gone wrong from there. Like, I'm not condoning John Wick. I've never, I've actually not seen those movies, but I'm not saying that this thirst is all sanctified. But what I'm saying is that desire for justice and to see things set right and made right and to see good works rewarded and bad works punished. This is something deep in us and good luck getting rid of it through like, well, now we're tolerant. 

I don't think it's going anywhere. Here's what I want you to know. It's good news that Jesus is judge. Like, if you're here and you're like, man, I'm scared. Trust me, it's scarier that someone else would be in his shoes, that someone else would be judging you. If you can't escape judgment altogether and you're not going to be in the shoes of God, you are going to be judged. 

You will have to account for your life. I'm just saying Jesus is your guy. You want him in that spot. 

He's much better than anyone else who could take the job. Think about this. These are Jesus's qualifications for being our judge. Infinite perfect knowledge. Not only of the facts, but of the hidden motives of why someone did something. 

Wow. How about empathy? Because he's been through the pain and suffering of a really hard life. 

He knows what we're suffering through. How about no ulterior motives? Like who's going to bribe him? What does he need? He doesn't need power. He doesn't need privilege. He has nothing to gain from judging us. What about this? A demonstrated willingness to do anything possible to rescue us from judgment. 

Man, I want that guy. How about this? Not a racist? Right on. Not a sexist? 

Not a classist? Or any other ist bone in his body? He doesn't play favorites. That's a guy that you want as judge. If Jesus isn't judge, who are the alternatives to that? Will the culture you live in will judge you? You will judge you? 

Don't trust you to judge you. You're way too close to the situation. You're either going to minimize or maximize what's going on. Your boss is going to judge you. Social media people, they don't even know you. They'll judge you. The devil will condemn you. You cannot avoid judgment. Someone's going to judge you. The wiser decision is to choose, this is who I want and this is who I choose as my judge. 

This is the one I'm living to impress. For sake these lesser courts, and I appeal to the Supreme Court, God is my judge. You address and assess what needs to be addressed in me. 

Listen to this. If you were a victim of injustice, you've been wronged, who would you want as your judge? Well, you would want a person with high integrity. You'd want somebody who is fair, impartial, honest, faithful. You would look for the smartest person, not just IQ but EQ, right? You want that person to have mounds of experience. You don't want them to have zits on their face, right? 

You want them to have a ton of experience working with other people because you want to make sure that judgment is assessed accurately. That's who you want if you've been wronged. But how many of you know that we're not just the victims, are we? We've wronged people. We also don't just need a judge to appeal for us. 

We also know we're part of the problem. And then all of a sudden you're like, well, I want a different judge when I'm being prosecuted. And who do you want when you prosecuted? You want your grandma, right? You're looking for the most loving, most gracious, most generous person you've ever met. You want somebody who can empathize, who knows how hard it is to walk in your shoes, the decisions you had to make. But you need proof that their love, their generosity is real. 

You get my point. Jesus is both of these things. Jesus is the guy that you want. And it's good news that Jesus is your judge today. In his rule in reign, he's going to render decisions. And it's a good thing that he renders decisions. Take him as your judge today. Second thing, we are judged according to our works. You should be saying to yourself, where the heck does the Bible teach that, man? 

Where is that? For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether for good or evil. Hebrews 9, 27, every single individual faces judgment. Unbelievers will be judged according to their works. 

And you're like, yeah, I've heard that. And this is some of the problems that we hear the word judgment and we think condemnation. But when the Bible uses the word judgment in regards to a believer, 90% of the time, it's the Greek word, crema, which simply means a decision resulting from investigation. 

That you've gathered the facts and you've made a decision. And believers will be judged according to their works. And the tone of the New Testament is that this ought to be sobering for you. I don't know about you guys, but I've lived a long time with the idea that when God sees me, he really sees Jesus. 

Yeah? Where you're going to cruise right up to will call and you're going to be like, I'm with Jesus? And then the person's going to be like, oh, Jesus, yeah, he left you tickets here and you'll be like, thanks. 

When he looks at you, he sees you. That's not in the Bible, unfortunately. I looked for it. I was desperate to find it. 

I was like, this has got to be in here. The New Testament speaks a little differently about judgment. Romans 14 is a great picture of this. Why do you pass judgment on your brother? 

Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. And then in verse 12, so then each of us will give an account of himself to God. The Bible only speaks of anyone being judged according to their works. 

And there are a lot of passages you can look up if you like. Believers will have their misdeeds exposed, our thoughts revealed, and we're compelled to live godly lives in light of a coming moment of having to answer for the way that we spent our lives, our time, our money, our words. We're going to have to answer for what we've done in this life. And this also means that we can anticipate being welcomed, being honored, being rewarded. 

We can anticipate this as well. That's what it says in Luke 12. And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man, will also acknowledge before the angels of God, but the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God. Here's a list of acts that are noted and promised to be rewarded in Scripture. Prayer and fasting is promised by Jesus himself to be seen and rewarded. Compassion for the vulnerable. When you do good to those who can do nothing for you, God can't wait to reward that. When you do good to only the people who can do good to you, well, that's your reward. Bearing insults and being excluded for the name of Christ is promised to be rewarded. Love for your enemies, generous giving, hospitality that can't be repaid, enduring through the pressures of ministry, quality work for your employer. 

I know he's not paying you enough. Faithfulness through trials will be rewarded and a faithfulness to the truth. What these rewards are we don't exactly know. We're just trusting our good Father when he says, oh, trust me, it's going to be good. Yeah. How come we don't talk more about this? Well, come on, it's been abused, right? 

This is the moment where I could say, and we're raising money for Amigo Roe. And unfortunately, the church has done that in the past. Also, it's really hard for us to get our heads around grace. 

Is it not? We tend to work our works into everything and make everything about what we've done. We don't understand that cross. What we understand really well is the latter. 

And we wish that it was a stairway to heaven. We really do because we'd like to assess what we're contributing. And so because this has been abused through church history, it's almost as if works got a bad rap. Like, oh, we don't touch those. 

Those are filthy. And again, I just would encourage you, once you see this, it's really hard to read your Bible again. What role do works play in salvation? There's a lot of different streams of the church that argue about this. And this is the little segment in the sermon. 

There's always a segment for those of you who are here and don't believe in Jesus. I think about you all the time. I'm so glad that you're here. I can't hardly believe that you have the guts to show up and sing with a bunch of random people about a God that you don't know. I think you're awesome. 

And I think about you a lot. And the other group that I think a lot about are the dorks. There's like seven of you who would want to read this book. Four views on the role of works in final justification by Alan P. Stanley. 

Here, let me summarize it for you. Robert Wilkin, he's a free gray sky. He says, works determine rewards, but not salvation. Thomas Shreiner has the view that I most align with. Good works are the necessary evidence of justification by faith. Michael Barber, who's a Catholic brother who writes, good works are a part of the merit that ultimately saves us. A part. 

Read that clearly. James Dunn. He says, you get in by faith, but you stay in by the obedience of faith. NT Wright says covenant membership is proven initially by faith and then finally by our works. These things are connected in some way that we're struggling to explain. 

Pastors will use analogies, cute little sayings, right? Like you're born into this family. You didn't choose to be born into this family. But you can choose to be pleasing in this family, right? 

And so you better show up to the table. Other cute things I've heard is that you're not saved by your good works, but you're saved for good works. That's a way of saying it. Saved by grace, but rewarded for our works. That's another way I've heard it say. What you do with the cross will determine where you spend eternity. 

But what you do with your life will determine how you spend eternity, right? There's all kinds of cute ways, but here's what I want you to understand. Worship team, would you guys come? I want you to know that how you live really matters. And stop with the like, when I'm just going to get there and I'm just going to say Jesus, and somehow I'm going to get through. 

Stop with that. Also, be encouraged that the sacrifices and the obedient steps that you're taken are not just seen, but it's our Father's good pleasure to reward them. He accounts for what other people are not accounting for. 

And that's a good thing. The second thing I want you to know is you're not more spiritual than Paul or Jesus. When it comes to heavenly rewards, there's always the cat who's like, I'm cool. Just give me like a hammock in heaven. I don't need a mansion, man, just a hammock by the lake. 

Don't worry about me, you know? And it's supposed to be so spiritual and it's not. Paul, Jesus, these are things that Jesus wanted to give. Don't be the guy at the party who's like, you don't have to get me anything. 

Don't worry about me. No, it's a way of honoring him by saying, I'll receive what you have for me, and I need what you have for me. The last thing you need to know is that warnings, especially warnings in the Bible, they're loving, even when they're sobering. It is not loving for me to avoid this topic. If the Bible's speaking directly to it, it's not a loving thing for me to be like, Jesus is your savior. We will stand and account for our lives and you can read about it if you like. And the last thing you need to know, because I know the enemy is in your ear condemning you right now, it's not too late. And he's not sentencing you in shame. He's inviting you with his conviction. 

And those are different. The condemnation that comes from the enemy will be general and vague like you've blown it. The conviction that comes from the spirit will feel like an invitation and say, this needs to shift and it'll have God's presence and power behind it. So if you're sitting here sitting feeling like ashamed for the ways that you've wasted maybe time and wasted money and feeling behind, I just want to read to you Revelation 5 as we come to the table and worship Jesus. John, he's lamenting in this passage because he so desperately wants justice on the earth. And he looks everywhere for someone who's worthy, someone who's qualified, someone who can be the world's true judge. And he's exasperated and he's crushed that he can't find anyone. He then looks and he sees the Lamb who is worthy to be our judge. What qualifies this Lamb to be our judge? 

Look at this. Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals. For you were slain and by your blood you ran some people from for God, from every tribe and language and people and nation. And you've made them a kingdom and priests to our God and they shall reign on the earth. Jesus is qualified to be our judge because of the immensity of his love for us. He knows that we not only need justice, things to be made right, but he knows in order to make them right we're going to need his mercy. Enter the cross. Where we're justified by our justifier. When you come to the table, remember that Jesus bore in himself the punishment we were due for our sins so that we could go forward and we could repent. We could receive his mercy. 

We could renounce our ways and go forward doing something new. Would you stand with me? If that's you and you're hearing the message loud and clear and you're needing to let go, there's prayer teams along the sides willing to pray for you. Come to the table and receive Christ's body and blood and let's exalt them together.

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