Terms and Conditions Apply

The title of our sermon study today is, Terms and Conditions Apply. Terms and Conditions Apply. If you have your Bibles, I invite you to open them up. We're going to turn to Luke 9 verses 23 through 26. That's where we're going to begin. Luke 9 verses 23 through 26. We are returning to our series that we began some time back, our sermon series in the Gospel of Luke. And in doing so, we come to chapter 9 and these statements with regards to the terms and conditions which apply to us spiritually. So not just any terms and conditions. Specifically, these are the terms and conditions in following Jesus Christ. Terms and conditions in following Jesus Christ are very clear. We will see. They're very pungent, if you will. Very striking. And what we're about to read challenges any notion that following Jesus Christ simply requires a few minor adjustments to our lives. No. In fact, it's a whole body requirement, a whole life requirement here. So look at these words. Luke 9, let's begin in verse 23. Luke records.

Then he, Jesus, said to them all, If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? For whoever is ashamed of me, in my words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when he comes in his own glory and in his fathers of the holy angels. Let's stop there. Well, there you have it, the terms and conditions of following Jesus Christ. That title came to me recently when I was looking to endeavor to add a new app to my smartphone. Perhaps you will relate to this. As I was adding this new application to my smartphone, a message appeared on it, and the words were, terms and conditions apply.

The instruction that you must read and agree to these conditions in order to proceed.

Then it had something like 35 sheets to scroll through at that time. I don't know about you. I think you should read those things. I think that's probably the smartest thing to do. I have to confess that I just decided, could it be really that different from the other applications that I've looked to download and the other conditions, which I didn't read as well. I considered I'll be okay, I guess. So I dutifully ticked the box, saving myself some 30 minutes or so that I didn't want to spend on that. Immediately when I clicked that box, I received a follow-up message which read, Thank you for accepting the terms and conditions of service. So there I was, ready to go forward.

I begin in that way because I believe that in Luke 9, here we find Jesus in his own way, laying down his own terms and conditions of service.

At some point in our lives, in the past, or maybe some of us are looking sometime in the future, there will come a time in which those words will appear on the screen of our lives, if you will.

And there will be a moment in which a decision needs to be made.

Are you going to become a follower of Jesus Christ? We can think back to that time in which those words in that question was presented to us. And the Father, through the Son, messaged us, if you will, called us and called us to agree to and to commit to the terms and conditions of following him and following God. Unlike our phone applications, which terms and conditions can vary from time to time, they can be modified. The terms and conditions of following the Son of God have never changed. They've never been modified. We cannot adapt them to our own particular preferences or our own particular desires. They are what they are, if you will. They are what they've always been. And again, it was as though at that time of your commitment, then after saying, I will follow you, that the message came back and said, I'm glad. I'm so happy that you've agreed to my terms and conditions. So what we want to look at today is to remind ourselves what we signed up for. Did we read all 35 pages of the spiritual terms and conditions? Or perhaps, if you're like me, as you made that commitment, you soon realized as the days, as the months, as the years went on, you weren't fully aware of all that was being expected of you, but you had to grow and adjust so this is what Jesus is revealing to them at this moment. And leading up to this moment in this chapter, we see that Jesus was explaining to those who were making that endeavor to follow him what it means. What it means. And he was also first explaining what it means of what was in store for him and who he was because he wanted to reveal to them. If you're going to follow me, let me show you the way in which you're going to walk. We see there in verse 20, if you allow your eyes to go up a little bit, Jesus was explaining what it would mean for him to make this walk and to become the Christ of God. Verse 20, Jesus said to them, but who do you say I am? He said that to his disciples. He said that to his followers. And Peter blurted out the Christ of God, meaning you're the anointed one. You're the Messiah. And then verse 21 through 22, Jesus began to immediately point out what it meant for him to be Christ. And you can see there, verse 22, to be Christ, it would involve suffering, rejection, to be killed, and to be then resurrected.

So all these things are involved. And then having explained what it means for him to be Christ, he goes on to say, now this is what it means to be a follower of me. He says, and essentially, verse 23 through 26, we have Christ saying, the pathway in which I have walked, you now must walk. And I'll tell you, he says, it's the pathway of crucifixion. It's the pathway of a crucifixion. It's the path of rejection. It's the path of suffering. It's the path of death. And if you could make this walk, eventually it will lead you to being raised in glory, just as I will be raised in glory, you see. So he established the pattern. So we're beginning to think about and reconcile and be reminded in our minds what are the terms and conditions that we signed up for?

The pathway or the journey to the resurrection strikingly is achieved through humiliation.

And again, as we follow this afternoon, we will see that what Jesus is seeing here in these statements is it's a pungent. I like that word. It is striking. And so any notion that following Jesus Christ simply involves a few minor adjustments to our lifestyle. It's just not so.

And I'll tell you, these four verses, I don't know how they could be read in the contemporary Christian view. I don't know how these could be read and it not challenge what the contemporary Christian view is of following Jesus Christ. I am increasingly convinced that many people turn their back on the gospel and the story of Christianity, not because they've examined it and found it untrue. I think they've turned their backs on it because they've examined the contemporary Christian message of what it means to follow Jesus Christ. And they have found it to be unbelievably trivial. Trivial. Because it's proclaimed in such a way the story of following Jesus. And it just seems so absolutely useless that all you do is profess that He is Christ, the Christ of our God, the Christ of our Jesus Christ. But you kind of just continue in the same way that you always continued. That's the contemporary message. It really is. You add Jesus to the sum total of your life. You really don't need Him, but it's nice if you have Him.

And people say, well, why would I ever consider, take the time to consider the claims of Jesus of Nazareth? It doesn't change your marriage. It doesn't change your business practices. It doesn't change your life at all. Because they'll say, isn't there something in the Bible about taking up your own cross and denying yourself? And what I find is sometimes the non-Christians actually know more about the terms and conditions than those who call themselves followers of Jesus Christ. It's really interesting. That's why we need to continually go back to the terms and conditions, refresh our memory on these things. This is how Phillips paraphrases verse 23, a commentary on Phillips. Quote, if anyone wants to follow in my footsteps, he must give up all right to himself or herself and take up their cross and follow me. Unquote. Give up all right to yourself.

Do Americans give up rights? This seems so un-American. The pursuit of happiness. It's not the gospel message. You have the right to pursue after me, Christ would say. And what does that involve? There's lots of happiness. And ultimately, there's the eternal happiness, of course. But, you know, giving up all rights. That goes against our nation's creed, you know, especially with the weekend that we had just had, July 4th, you know. Give up all right to myself. Can this possibly be in the Bible? This is radical.

And what it means is that our minds, our hearts, our bodies, our morals, our manners, our means is all brought under the control of the One to whom we just declared the Christ of God. If we declare that, then this is what it means. And all the implications that come along with it. So here are the essential requirements of being a follower of Jesus Christ. This is not all of them. Here's a select few. Look at verse 23 again. Verse 23. Verse 23. He said to them all. So it's hard to wiggle out of that. You know, eventually, all will have to agree to these terms and conditions. Right now, it's the first fruits. But all won't be able to say, well, I didn't read those 35 pages, you know. Now, these terms and conditions are clear here. Verse 23. First of all, first condition, if anyone desires to come after me, let him or we could say let her deny themselves. Deny themselves. So my life is no longer about me. So I tell the young people, you know, as you're going through life and you have the beginnings of relationships, of business, of location, of, you name it, the posture in which you approach those things, those physical aspects, is my life is not about me. So I'm going to approach these things and I'm going to try to ask God to help me remove everything of myself. Myself is not the priority. And you'll start to get yourself aligned with that perspective. It's not about my agenda. I need to have this radical perspective here. This is not, you know, let him deny himself. This is not a few principles by which to live by simply. You know, here's just a few principles. Superficial kind of. This is a call to self-denial. It is a crucifying of the self. It is a crucifying of my designs and my desires.

So, trust me when I say I have not always made this the right decision, but I share this with the young people, particularly at camp, because I want them to see it. You know, when I was working at the bank and the call came to leave all of that and to follow this new way of life, to move into pastureship, it felt like almost a physical crucifixion of myself as I began to look at the finances and how is this going to line up.

This might mean that we have to move and my family's here and you know all of that. So, what's my priority? Is this my life? Is this my agendas? No. Is this a clear call from God? Yes. So, no matter what it is. So, the perfect job comes, let's say, young man, young woman, and it's going to have you compromise parts of God's will. Let's say it's going to have you work on the Sabbath. It's not even a thought. This is not my life. It's not my agenda. It's not my money. It's not my... you name it.

And plug in to your particular circumstances. What might there be in your life that you need to remind yourself of the radical type of thinking that needs to be involved and remind yourself in this life, I can expect to have some crucifying of myself in what I desire. You know, there would have been people in this crowd that Jesus was speaking to. They had seen the miracles. They had marveled at His words. They liked His words. They liked His miracles.

But yet, haven't, and hadn't at that point, decisively bowed beneath His lordship. We may be struggling with that today or need to be reminded. There's no soft option here. This is the radical denunciation of self-idolatry. Denunciation of self-idolatry. I found this quote. This is a theologian by the name of Temple. He wrote in an earlier era, quote, the problem is that for all of us in a thousand ways every day, we make ourselves the center of the universe, unquote.

That's so true. It's true in my life. You know, it's natural to us to be. It's all about me. Until grace, you know, when grace appears in our life, when those terms and conditions come, we realize it's really all about Him. In this life, it is not about us. It's about God the Father, Jesus Christ. And if we can walk in this way, get ready. There is resurrection coming. It's coming. Life that's truly life is coming. That is not what this physical life is about for the called one of God.

Right now, set your perspective. It is denial. It is suffering. It's rejection. It's how it's to be right now. But wait! Glory's coming. Glory's coming to those who click this box, if you will, these terms and conditions that commit themselves to it. I couldn't remember this song for a while. I remembered the music part of it. It was something like, and that's about the only part I can remember.

But I knew it had something to do with this topic. Can you name that tune? That's all I can remember. I know some of you may be thinking about it. My sister introduced me to this artist, Billy Joel. Right? My life. How many know this song, Billy Joel? My life? Only two. Wow. I'm in trouble. Well, this was a hit. I don't need you to worry for me because I'm all right.

I don't want you to tell me it's time to come home. I don't care what you say anymore. This is my life. Go ahead with your own life and leave me alone. Anybody recognize that more? Okay, now I've got some hands. I just had to sing it. That's all. But it was a big hit. And that really spoke to a generation. Really spoke to a generation. Really spoke to a generation. They could live life on their own terms and conditions, right?

You saw around that time a wholesale movement to broken families, divorce, to children disrespecting their parents to old new level. Go ahead with your own life. Leave me alone. That is the anthem of man. It's who we are by nature. We don't have to go to the bookstore and say, Can you give me a book that will help me be more about myself?

Can you give me some instruction? Recommend a book that will help me be more self-centered? No, we do that fine on our own. We don't need a book to train us for that. All the self-fulfillment section is full of those things. But you see why following Jesus Christ, it's radical. What we're talking about, it's radical. And just in case the men and women who are listening to Jesus Christ here, if they didn't get the self-denial bit, he heats it up in the next condition here. The end of verse 23 here, deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. That's the second condition. So deny himself as the first, number two, and take up his or her cross daily, daily and follow me.

Now, in order for us to wrestle with this, we have to disassociate ourselves from the kind of terminology or kind of words that seem to be around this term here, cross. You will hear people say at the strangest of times, well, we all have our cross to bear.

You know, I hear this during Catholic Lent, 40 days in which they deny themselves. And the most recent one I heard, you know, I'm denying myself chocolate for these 40 days. You know, we all have our cross to bear, you know, they're not getting it. Very superficial. But what Jesus is saying here, this is a radical metaphor.

This is from the Roman world, not from the Jewish world. And it would have reverberated in the Jewish ears at that time. And rightly so. They knew the Romans had conceived of the most brutal, horrible form of death ever known to humanity. And they would not have been unfamiliar with the scene that had the individual sentenced to death, surrounded by a troop of soldiers, walking toward the place of their execution, carrying the means of execution on their shoulders, the beam, the burden by which they will be crucified. So that's the picture that Jesus Christ is painting in the minds of the listeners here.

And he uses this in order to establish the terms and conditions of following him. When the community at that time saw the individual dragging that beam to their crucifixion, they knew they weren't coming back. They weren't coming back. They were going one way. There's something about the one-way journey. No possibility of returning. I was reading over this July 4th weekend about some of the stories. You know, there's many stories of departures of those who went out to defend our independence. One such story struck me. It was a story about a father who was saying goodbye to their son. The son hugged his father and said, goodbye, dad. I'll never see you again. That was the son's words.

It proved out true. The young man was killed during that time. Goodbye, son. I'll never see you again. That was the last time that the father saw his son. So, the notion that Jesus is talking about here, and I want you to get that picture in your mind, because what we're saying goodbye to, essentially, is a goodbye to ourself. It is a goodbye to your old self. Tough times are coming, and we need to remember, and we need to make another commitment, a greater commitment to this very thing. We need to say goodbye to ourselves in a greater way this year.

There are some things, I'm sure, that we are facing that we need to apply these terms and conditions to. And you see it all throughout Scripture. This is not just something that Luke is recording. We won't turn there, but, of course, Romans 12. By the mercies of God, I implore you, beseech you, to present your bodies as living sacrifice. As a living sacrifice. And Paul goes on to write there, what does a living sacrifice mean? It means being holy and acceptable to God. It's your reasonable service. So, living sacrifice. Paul picks up the notion again. We won't turn there, but 1 Corinthians 6.19. 1 Corinthians 6.19. And you are not your own. You were bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your own body. So, you're not your own. From the time you made that commitment, you became God's.

This is the terms. You're not your own. These are the terms and conditions. That Billy Joel song is not our song. You know, it can't be.

If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. And then here in Luke 9 verse 24, we see it changes our whole perspective.

Whole perspective. Verse 24, whoever desires to save his life, to hold on to it, to protect it, to live for himself, to live for herself, in the end is going to lose it. But whoever is prepared to lose their life for my sake will save it. Think of that perspective. Verse 25 and 26. Man, this is a big one to our young people. I see our young people making decisions profitable for this world, unprofitable for their spiritual life. And this scripture comes to them with great clarity. Verse 25 and 26. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and is himself destroyed or lost? For whoever is ashamed of me, Christ says, in my words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when he comes in his own glory and in his fathers and of the holy angels. Again, it changes our whole view of life. What's your perspective? What are your goals? What are your expectations? In many ways, if we're receiving honor and glory in this life, maybe do an evaluation. God does give us honor and glory in this life. But our expectation is shame now, right? We want to allow the struggle and the denial to work in us so that Christ will be unashamed of us when he returns. I don't want to be ashamed of Jesus in this lifetime. I'm going to be a follower so that when he returns, he will not be ashamed of me. That's a big one there.

And then here in this chapter, we're going to skip down a little bit. We find something very helpful a little bit later here in Luke 9. As it begins in verse 57, if you allow your eyes to go down to verse 57, it really is some of the practical and helpful outworkings of what it means to follow Jesus Christ. Some of the crowd may have said, what does this look like? What does this look like in our daily lives here? What is following you? What are the terms and conditions? What are the outworkings of that? And we see Jesus as he's walking to his crucifixion. He encounters three individuals. All have an opportunity to follow him. And Jesus gives a word to all three followers, potential followers. Because you'll notice verse 57, now it happened as they journeyed on the road. That's Jesus and his disciples. So Jesus was journeying to his cross, if he will, to his crucifixion. Three potential followers come to Jesus Christ. The first man is found here in verse 57.

Verse 57, here's the first potential follower. Now it happened as they journeyed on the road that someone said to him, to said to Jesus Christ, Lord, I will follow you wherever you go. And it's a very eager individual. And as we follow along here, perhaps a very impulsive follower. This is an impulsive, emotional, very emotional, that emotion comes through this. Lord, I will follow you wherever you go. Had he, we don't know, had he been caught up in the crowd, had he seen the miracles, had he been walking with them a while, we don't know, in this group. And perhaps they looked around and they saw this individual walking with them. Who are you? Well, I'm here. Lord, I'll follow you wherever you go. He says, stirred with a sense of enthusiasm. Just being close to the action, perhaps. And Jesus' reply here speaks volumes, maybe where this man was in his heart. Verse 58, Jesus begins to speak about foxes having holes to live in, birds of the air knowing where they're going to sleep that night. But the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head, he says, to this man. Very straightforward.

Well, if you really think you're going to follow me wherever I go, I want you to know what's going to be involved. Yeah, I want you to count the cost. Then you will feel like this world is not your own. So much so, you can't even, as you lay your head down at night, you're going to feel like a sojourner looking for their real home, you know, looking for their real pillow at night.

Perhaps an impulsive follower here, a burst of incredible spiritual enthusiasm. We see this. Sometimes the enthusiasm lasts weeks. Sometimes the enthusiasm lasts years. But eventually it's this fleeting. The enthusiasm is fleeting once the terms and conditions really come to bear here. You will no longer, this will no longer be your home. You will no longer be able to lay your head in this home.

And maybe, perhaps, what we can see in this little encounter, it seems to indicate that God did not call this first individual. You see, there's no indication that Jesus said to this man, follow me. Of course, we know it takes God the Father through Jesus Christ to even make the call to the heart for the heart to respond.

So perhaps this first individual was not receiving a call from God and was just wrapped up in the excitement. The second individual here, you'll notice, did receive a personal invitation. Verse 59, to the second individual, the encounter, while Jesus is on his way to crucifixion, is a personal invitation. Jesus says to the second individual, follow me. Follow me. So here's the call. And the man says, well, I'd like to go and bury my father first. You know, some commentary says it doesn't necessarily mean here that the Father was already dead. I thought that's interesting. Let me think about that a little bit. You know, it doesn't specifically say that the Father's dead. You know, scripture can be applied. If you really mole on scripture a little bit, you can get more out of it. Perhaps this individual was a guy saying that there's going to be a delay in me following you.

I have this physical, personal responsibility that I need to take care of first. In fact, I need to wait till my father dies, and then I'll be ready to follow you. So what in your life are you waiting for to physically to wrap up so that you can then give your whole heart to following Jesus Christ? So there's a principle there. Perhaps. Let me get to the point of getting this physical aspect of burying my father. Then I'm going to be freed up, and then I'll be able to follow you. Now the call is follow me today, this minute. No delay. Not for a later stage in my life when I'm freed up a little bit with some obligations. I don't know. I don't think I'm convinced with that. I think the father is dead. That's what I think. I'm going to go bury my father, then I'll be right with you. So if that's the case, which I think it likely is, what we have here is Jesus's dramatic nerve-jangling, bone-chilling call, and he makes it perfectly clear this is an urgent matter. Even the most intimate family responsibilities must be given second place.

Second place. Some have tried to use this scripture and applied in certain ways. They will say incorrectly, I can't go to my family's funeral on the Sabbath. I don't think I think you can honor your family and honor God in that way and attend the funeral.

But I think this most often speaks to the the most intimate family responsibilities must be given second place. So God, through Jesus Christ, is making this call to us and they are priority. Above even family considerations. The most intimate family considerations. And I'll have you know throughout all of this, Jesus Christ never asked us to do what he hasn't already done. We won't turn there. Well, let's turn there. One chapter back, Luke 8, verse 19-21. We remember this. Luke 8, verse 19-21. The call came out to Jesus and said, your mother and your brothers are here and they're here to see you.

Verse 20, Luke 8. And it was told, your mother and your brothers are standing outside desiring to see you. Verse 21. But he answered and said to him, my mother and my brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it. So Jesus Christ took the walk and he says, follow me. And he's always been a leader that shows the way, not just talking about it. And we see that here.

He said, my mother and my brothers, if you want to break it down, they're not my true family. My true family, they will be one day, God willing, called and brought into the family.

But my family today ultimately is those to whom God has placed his spirit and they have been placed on this journey with me. Back in chapter 9 verse 59, this second individual receives the invitation of Jesus Christ. Remarkable. But I've got some family members, matters I got to deal with. But if you want to be a follower of me, I want you to follow me immediately. You know, on the part of our camp theme this year is join the family. And this is what we're talking about. Make that commitment. Become baptized. Be thinking about that.

Don't delay. Don't delay. Be preparing for that. We want to make sure our young people are of a certain maturity level where they understand the fullness of what it means to enter into that relationship. But the men that they are there, don't delay. Don't delay. These are the terms and conditions. Is this our perspective? Third individual, verse 61, verse 61. Oh, by the way, verse 60, the follower here, going back to the second, Jesus said to him, let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God. There's his response to this. Let me go bury my father. You know, what's our perspective? We don't neglect our personal family obligations, our physical family, but is our perspective of following Jesus Christ where it should be? This is what he's putting our perspective in place. Verse 61, third and final individual. And yet he said, another also said, so here's our third individual coming onto the picture, Lord, I will follow you, verse 61, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are in my house. Stop there. So we could say this is not so much of a monumental situation here. This is not a family funeral. Let me go and say goodbye to my family. But Jesus says to him, verse 62, no one having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. You know, you can't, if we're going to be a follower of Jesus Christ, you can't plow a straight line if you're looking back, you know. And Jesus Christ needs us to plow straight lines. He's free. We're following him and we need to be in his line, if you will. So nothing as monumentous as a death of a loved one, nor nothing as trivial as a family goodbye, must interfere when it comes to facing up to the cost of following Jesus Christ.

And I think we have an inkling here of this third individual's heart here. There's just something about what we get from this third individual. I will follow you, Lord, when that's immediately followed by the phrase, let me just go back. Yeah, this doesn't line up. I'm going to follow you, but just let me go back. Where's your heart? Where was this man's heart? Here. The call of God never leaves the man or woman where it found them. The call of God always brings the man or woman forward in movement here. And Jesus has fully complied with all that he calls others to do again. Jesus has fully complied with all that he asked us to do.

He was not unfamiliar. He was very familiar with the way of sorrow, deprivation, suffering. He has taken the way of abuse and scorn. He was maligned by his family. And he simply is saying this, if you really want to follow me, you have to make this commitment and nothing can get in the way. Nothing can get in the way. Genuinely following Jesus Christ leaves no room for excuse, no room for compromise, no room for half-heartedness. So as we begin to conclude, let's ask, well, what of us today? What of us today? We are listening to the call of Jesus Christ. It's a daily call. Have you had the sense that we need to bend our knee before Him in a greater way? Embrace Him as the Christ of God? Embrace Him as your Messiah? Have you had the sense in your heart that there has been some emotional surge and there's parts of your life in which you're not following Jesus Christ? Something in your life where you need to settle these accounts? And maybe it's sin that's keeping you from following Him completely? Some kind of self-idolatry? Well, to that matter, we need to deal with it. We need to deal with it and come to Christ's crucifixion. Have it settled once and for all. Let me get back to our terms and conditions. You know, again, we can imagine that in our life daily, we have this little box up here before us on the screen of our hearts, Jesus Christ saying, my terms and conditions have not changed.

Know them, read them, proceed forward. And as we've seen today, it's not going to be easy. But if in your heart you're willing to say, yes, I agree to these conditions, I agree to these, may we today ask for God's grace in a greater measure to help us accept and truly confirm in our lives the terms and conditions of following Jesus Christ.