Why Should You Follow Christ?
(A motivation to follow Christ in light of His coming kingdom)
(By Pastor Kelly Sensenig)
A railroad engineer by the name of Bennie Locke recalled that one time he was 25 minutes late on a run out of Scranton, Pennsylvania. As always, he had prayed for safety. Then he asked, "Lord, help me bring her in on time." Later he said, "On this particular day I couldn't gain a second on the stiff climb up the Pocono Mountains. But once over the summit, we almost flew down the other side. I just held her steady and let her go. At last the old station at Hoboken loomed ahead. As we pulled alongside, I looked at my watch and we were right on the dot. I sat wiping the sweat off my face when I heard the tap of a cane on the outside of the cab. Looking out, I saw the president of the railroad standing there, all smiles. He said to me, `A good run, sir! A very good run!' That meant more to me than anything in this world." The godly engineer continued, "When I make life's last run and pull into the Great Terminal, I hope I'll hear Christ say, `A good run, sir! A very good run!'"
We too should long to hear these words from our Lord’s lips when we enter the future life. I trust that this is our supreme desire. If not, we need to start focusing on the future. We should seek to follow the Lord in this life so when we appear in the next life Jesus will be pleased with our overall performance or run in life. Are we looking ahead to the final terminal?
The Scriptures Considered
Matthew 16:21-27
“From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee. But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.”
Mark 8:31-38
“And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he spake that saying openly. And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him. But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men. And when he had called the peopleunto himwith his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
Luke 9:22-27
“Saying, The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day. And he said to themall, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away? For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels. But I tell you of a truth, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God.”
Introductory Remarks
In this study I would like to give you an understanding of why Jesus presented the ministry of discipleship to the lost crowds of people that He came in contact with during His earthly life. You will note that in these verses Jesus presented truth to both his disciples and the lost masses of people. In short, we might conclude that Jesus presented discipleship to the Jewish crowds He came in contact with in order to communicate the message that it pays to follow Jesus. The Jews were looking forward to the arrival of the messianic kingdom upon earth. They had earthly promises going way back to Abraham and reconfirmed to David (Genesis 12:1-3; 2 Samuel 7:11- 16). It’s interesting that Jesus always spoke about discipleship in the context of His offer of His kingdom to the Jews. And this offer occurs within the gospel accounts. This is because Jews were awaiting the arrival of the long-awaited kingdom (Luke 19:11). These Jewish crowds were addressed by Christ to follow Him in view of the coming messianic kingdom. The King was no longer coming. The King had come and was standing in their midst. The kingdom was in their midst in the person of the king Himself (see Luke 17:21). Therefore, following the Lord in commitment and discipline in view of the kingdom’s arrival is the only fulfilling and truly satisfying life that there is to live. It pays off not only in your present life but also your future life in great eternal dividends.
We know the church is not mentioned in the parables because the parables deal with kingdom truth promised to national Israel. I am weary of those who confuse kingdom truth with church truth in God’s eschatological program. However, I think that we can safely apply the message about discipleship and the subsequent promotion and honor that Jesus promises to Israel in the future kingdom to the honor and recognition that church age saints will also receive in the coming kingdom. This is because the New Testament epistles also mention these kingdom promises in view of the faithfulness and suffering of believers within the present day church.
We are also going to see that Jesus did not promote discipleship as being part of saving faith or salvation as Lordship Salvation teachers impress upon people today. Many press the issue of discipleship upon lost people today in order to get them to forsake every known sin in their life. They stress discipleship as a “works” part of the Gospel presentation. People are told to surrender every area of their lives and give up every sin in order to be saved. They are commanded to give up sins so that they can have real faith in Jesus Christ and be saved. As we will see in this study, Jesus did not promote or press discipleship upon lost people in order to get them to forsake every known sin in their lives so that they could be saved.
In this study we will see that Jesus presented discipleship to promote the overall idea of fulfillment and satisfaction in this life and in the future life. Under this main heading we will see that Jesus will warn about the danger of false profession in light of His return to earth. But He will also address the matter of rewards and rulership responsibilities connected to genuine believers. Furthermore, in a secondary reason for presenting discipleship we will discover that Jesus presented discipleship to a lost man to demonstrate how sinful he was before God and how he needed salvation through the Messiah.
This study should provide a satisfactory answer to why Jesus presented discipleship to both His saved disciples and to the lost people while on earth. It should also provide us with the answer to why we should become a follower of Jesus today. May it be both a blessing and challenge to all of our lives. May it compel us to get busy in the Master’s work in light of the future. We must remember that the Master has called us!
In these verses dealing with discipleship we will see that Jesus spoke to the Jewish audiences about becoming a disciple in order to inform them about the only kind of life that satisfies and brings reward both now and in the future life of the promised kingdom. Jesus was presenting discipleship to the Jewish crowds in order to promote the overall concept of fulfillment and satisfaction in this life and the life to come. We will bring this out in our explanation of these verses.
It’s interesting to read these passages of Scripture and notice the connective word “for” as it appears in the verses following Jesus’ presentation of discipleship or the need for people to follow Him. These connective words (“for”) actually mark the beginning of a series of separate explanations as to why people should follow Christ. Jesus is saying, “come after me” (follow me) and then in the next verses gives the reasons why people should follow Him. And Jesus indicates these very reasons by the connective words “for” as they are seen in the following verses. There is definitely a progression of thought in these verses. In other words, we don’t have to guess why we should follow Jesus. Jesus tells us why we should follow Him. He then provides incentive for following Him in the verses that follow.
Some have suggested that these connective words (“for”) simply explain the thought in the previous verse. Thus, the sayings of Jesus in all these verses provide only one general flow of thought that says an unsaved person should save his life from coming judgment. Failure to do so would mean that when Jesus returns to earth this individual will lose his soul and Christ will express shame toward this person for his failure to follow Him appropriately. In the final analysis Christ will also fail to reward this person and grant him entrance into the kingdom of God. This is a plausible scenario but seems to forget that Jesus sometimes joined together great fundamental trues dealing with both believers and nonbelievers in several compact sayings. In other words, Jesus could speak about several different groups of people (saved and unsaved) in only three or four verses while He addresses the subject of the coming kingdom. Furthermore, the connective words (“for”) in these verses may address separate or different reasons why people should follow Christ instead of dealing with the one thought of judgment for the lost. Therefore, Jesus could present these different reasons for discipleship and relate them to the lives of both believers and nonbeliever’s in relationship to His return to earth. We do know that both saved and unsaved were represented in this gathering or crowd who was listening to Jesus. It seems that Jesus could give a comprehensive message dealing with both groups of people. And it’s this particular thesis that I will maintain to defend without doing any injustice to the obvious parabolic teachings of judgment in connection with Christ’s return to earth.
The Jews possessed earthly covenant promises concerning eternal life in the kingdom reign upon earth. So Jesus spoke to these crowds of people concerning discipleship to inform them about the only kind of life that will bring both present satisfaction and blessing in view of the coming earthly kingdom. He also reminds the people about the future (eschatological) reward in the kingdom, which results from following Christ or discipleship. The repeated statements “lose his life for my sake shall find it” - Matt. 16:25, “lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it” - Mark 8:35, “lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it” – Luke 9:24) all summarize what Jesus was conveying in light of the coming kingdom. But what was Jesus really trying to say by these most unusual expressions?
To the best of my knowledge and research the traditional interpretation of these texts and others like them (Matt. 10:39; 16:25; Mark 8:35; John 12:25) have been taken only in a literal fashion. Many interpret them to only mean the saving of physical life and the loss of physical life and even spiritual life in view of the coming kingdom. In other words, people can save their physical life in light of Christ’s coming by not identifying with Christ in discipleship. They can decide not to identify with the cause of Christ on earth and totally neglect the ministry of discipleship. Therefore, when Jesus returns in glory to earth they will end up losing both their physical life and eternal soul in the judgment that precedes the kingdom’s arrival to earth. This is when Jesus will judge the surviving nations at His revelation to earth (Matthew 24-25). Their loss of life and even their eternal soul will come about because of their absence of discipleship, which only demonstrates that they were not a true believer in the Messiah. Jesus thus warns people about the danger of false profession in light of His return and speaks about this in other corresponding parabolic passages related to His kingdom arrival to earth (Matthew 24:48-51; 25:24-30).
For many interpreters (not all) the concept of losing your life and saving your life may very well have only a physical idea attached to it. You can save your physical life by not identifying with the rigors of discipleship prior to the establishment of the kingdom on earth. However, in doing this, you will actually lose out on eternal life or entrance into the coming messianic kingdom when Jesus returns. This will be especially true during the coming tribulation period when those who house and help God’s Jewish people will evidence their strong level of discipleship and be allowed not only entrance into the kingdom but receive rich reward and inheritance in this coming kingdom (Matt. 25:31-46).
In addition, if you “lose” your life in physical death for the sake of Jesus Christ prior to the establishment of His kingdom then you will save your life from future judgment when the Lord returns to judge the unbelievers in the surviving nations of the world (Matthew 24-25). These judged people would be the unbelievers who have failed to do the Father’s will and identify with Him in the ministry of discipleship which may involve even death for His cause. Therefore, they will lose their physical and spiritual lives when the Lord judges them and casts them into Hades in this coming day (Matthew 24:51; 25:41, 46). Their profession of “many wonderful works” will not fool the coming King in this day (Matthew 7:21-23).
Thus, for many interpreters the saving and losing of one’s life may signify only a physical preservation of life in this present life and the loss of spiritual life in view of the coming kingdom. In other words, these words “saving” and “lose” are interpreted by many in only a literal fashion. They are referring to the physical well being of a person while living on earth by refusing to identify with Christ (“save his life”). And in the end their easy life and rejection of the King will result in their loss of both physical and spiritual life (“lose his life”) in the coming judgment associated with the arrival of the kingdom. “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul.”
Of course there is merit in this interpretation. And I agree with all of the things that I have said in the above analysis. The parables of the kingdom do indicate that there will be spiritual judgment associated with unbelievers because of false profession. And many will lose their life in a spiritual sense when Jesus returns to the earth (Matthew 24-25). I also certainly agree with the grammatical, historical and literal approach to interpretation. However, a different slant on these expressions (finding your life and losing your life) will not do away with the literal approach to the interpretation of Scripture nor undermine or impair the understanding of the parables that teach the Lord’s coming judgment upon false disciples.