Matthew 8:18-34

So, you want to be a disciple of Jesus? It certainly has its rewards but it can be hard.

Despite some present day teaching Jesus does not promise that discipleship will always involve a nice place to stay. He makes it pretty clear that discipleship requires making all things secondary to following Him. And once you do follow Him you can pretty much count on hitting a few storms. And then there is the opposition, both demonic and human.

So why would we want to follow Him? Well, there is the promise of eternal treasure and an eternal home. Even in the storms there is the absolute assurance that as long as we are with Him we can’t sink. And in spite of the opposition there is the wonder and joy of seeing the impossible take place and lives set free.

In order to be a disciple of Jesus you have to follow Jesus. It’s that simple. One of the short comings of the church in the USA is that while we often call people to salvation we rarely call them to discipleship. The “Great Commission” is to go an make disciples. But in order to make one you have to be one. It doesn’t really cut it to say, “You should follow Jesus. He's over there.” It does cut it to say, “Come, let’s follow Jesus together.”