Gloria Dei Lutheran Church | Urbandale, Iowa

Followers of Jesus Pay the Price

Pastor Phillips’ Sermon

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

In the Olympics, the top three win medals, gold, silver and bronze. In American Idol, the top ten in the competition receive the honor of going on tour for that season. But in Christianity, statistics show that the top 12% are highly spiritually committed and that, as a result of their dedication to their faith, they receive rewards for that commitment.

According to research done by George Gallop, 12% of Americans are highly spiritually committed. These are those who truly understand what it means when Jesus says to deny yourself, to take up your cross and to follow after Him. Gallop says that members of this group are a breed apart from the rest of the populace and they’re different in at least four ways.

First, they’re happier. Second, they have stronger family relationships. Third, they’re more tolerant of people of different races and religions. And fourth, they’re more community-minded people. They’re involved in service to others and that is the cross bearing that really counts.

As we continue our series talking about moving from an admirer to a follower of Jesus, it’s putting our faith in action and followers who pay the price and take up their cross do so voluntarily. Sometimes, though, we hear in Christian circles, “Oh, I guess that’s just my cross to bear.” You know, some miserable condition of their life, some unfortunate aspect of their existence and they’re talking about it in such a negative way, it sounds like they’d gladly get rid of it as soon as they get the chance. But that’s not what Jesus is talking about, when He’s telling His followers and when He’s telling you and me to take up our cross. He’s not talking about some miserable burden to bear. Jesus’ followers take up their cross voluntarily as they pay the price like He paid the price. It’s their mission in life to take up that cross. It’s their passion in ministry. It’s their eager and willing offering of service to their loving Savior in response for what He’s done for them. They are taking up their cross and following after Him.

When followers of Jesus take a few minutes to tell you about the things they do to take up their cross, you can see the light come on in their eyes. You can hear the passion in their voices. Just ask somebody who’s taught Vacation Bible School or gone on a mission trip or visited the homeless camps. Just ask somebody who plays on the worship team or makes quilts for the poor or mentors young people. Talk to them and you won’t hear some complaining of a miserable condition that they have to live with. Instead, you’ll hear some enthusiasm about a joyful cross that they are eager and willing to take up and carry. That’s what followers of Christ do.

And followers of Christ, when they take up their cross, they make a stand for their faith. What they do makes a statement to the world around them. Early in the 5th century, there was a Christian by the name of Telemachus who thought that there was kind of a prevailing thought of the day called asceticism and what that meant is you tried to isolate yourself from all the corrupt influences of the world. And so he thought the best way he could do that was to go live out in a desert all by himself and, that way, he’d avoid the corruption of the world and he’d be fully devoted to God. But one day, as he was going through his ritual of prayer and meditation, it occurred to him that he was not serving God because he knew that to serve God, he had to serve people. And out in the middle of the desert, there were no people. And so he resolved and determined that he was going to go make a change. He packed up and he headed for the greatest city of the time, Rome. And the funny thing was, at that time, the official religion of the Roman empire was Christianity. The emperor was Christian. The citizens of Rome were Christian and this is the destination that Telemachus was headed for.

Now as he arrived in Rome, a celebration was going on. You see, a Roman general had just obtained a huge victory over one of their enemies and, as a tribute, the emperor gave the general a Roman triumph and that meant there were processions and celebrations and, of course, the games at the coliseum. Now Rome again was, at this point, supposed to be a Christian city and, in some ways, they reflected that. But one thing still lingered from their terrible past. There were still those bloody games in the coliseum. Now Christians were no longer thrown to the lions or anything like that but, if the Roman armies went out and waged war, anyone they captured they brought back and those people were forced to fight as gladiators in the coliseum as entertainment for the Roman citizens.

So as Telemachus came into the city, he heard all the excitement coming from the coliseum and that’s where he went. There were 80,000 people there reveling in the entertainment and the chariot races had just ended. There was a lot of buzz in the crowd as they were anticipating the big fight of the gladiators and into the arena they came with their salute. “Hail, Caesar, we who are about to die salute you.” And the fight was on. And Telemachus watched in horror. These were Christian people who were fighting. In fact, legend says that he even saw one of his friends being killed and so, in response, he made his way down to the arena floor and climbed down there and he walked out in between the fighters and he stood between them and he said, “Stop. Stop.” And the crowd jeered him and said, “Get him out of there. On with the fight. On with the fight. On with the games.” And so they threw him out of the way and began to fight again. Again, he put himself between the gladiators and said, “Stop.” And the crowd was angry because he was interrupting their fun, their entertainment, so they began to throw rocks at him. And legend has it that he was killed as they threw those rocks at him. And as his body lay in the floor of the arena, the crowd seemed to finally get it. They were supposed to be Christians and look what they were watching. Look what they were seeking for entertainment.

A few days later, the story was told to the emperor and the emperor was so deeply moved by the stand of faith by Telemachus that he issued an edict and banned the games forever. And history says that’s when they stopped. One historian wrote of Telemachus, “His death was more useful to mankind than his life. By losing his life, he had done more than he could ever have done living a life of lonely devotion out in the desert.” Telemachus was compelled by the Holy Spirit to take up his cross, to go to Rome to make a stand for his faith.

A third and crucial characteristic of what followers of Jesus do, when they take up their cross, they live what they believe. Now I’ve heard that among young people, one of the biggest turn offs to Christianity is the hypocrisy that they see in the people around them, people who claim to be Christians and then behave differently, act differently. And that would make sense to me if I was a young person watching people who claim to be Christians.

But people who are genuine followers of Christ, sincere in their faith, devout, people who are in that top 12% of highly spiritually committed are people who take up their cross and live what they believe. Of course, it doesn’t mean they’re perfect. There are no perfect people and there’s nobody even close but what it does mean is that they try, they strive to live according to God’s ways and they sincerely try to live by the Ten Commandments. They do their best to avoid those things, those activities and that entertainment that presents temptations. And they work at putting God first in their lives and they place great value on their families. Followers who take up their cross and follow after Jesus live what they believe.

The statistics that George Gallop obtained through his surveys and polls show that people who are highly spiritually committed also receive rewards. It’s not the reason we do what we do, is it? But it’s a blessing built into following Jesus and serving Him. The first reward that He says people receive is happiness. Now people who take up their cross and who are fully dedicated to Jesus live happier lives. And it kind of makes sense if you think about it. If we are following after Jesus, we have the security of knowing that there is a wonderful creator God that has our best interests in mind. We have the peace of knowing that our debt of sin, the guilt that most people just walk around with through life and the guilt that kind of motivates them and shapes their life, we don’t have that because we’ve confessed it and Jesus paid that debt in full when He died on the cross. Those who are followers of Christ know an inner confidence that comes from being unconditionally loved and being told that they are precious in God’s sight.

Followers of Jesus Christ are also rewarded with happiness because they know what they are doing makes a difference in the world around them. As they dedicate themselves to the tasks and projects that God has led them to do, they feel as if their life has a purpose and they find gratification in the work they do. This is how it works. You go through a challenging experience in life and then God uses you and your experience to comfort someone else going through a similar experience. It gives us pleasure to know that the hard things we’ve struggled with will be used by God to help someone else.

Followers also have a strong family relationship. Those who take up their cross and follow after Jesus enjoy the wonderful blessings that God designed in marriage, in family. As they dedicate themselves to serving God and paying the price and being bold witnesses and things like that, we follow after Jesus and it makes sense that our family relationship are stronger because He’s the one who created family. He’s the one who created marriage. He’s the one who designed it. And so as we follow after Him, He shows us how to be fathers, how to be mothers, how to be parents and how to be children.

As we follow after Jesus, he shows us what it means to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. He shows us what it means to lay down our life for our spouse as Christ did for the church. He shows us as children the beautiful blessing when we honor and respect our parents. Have you ever tried that? Some of you have elderly parents but it still works. When you honor them and respect them as God has designed it to be, it’s like you open the floodgates for them to love you. Your parents are just waiting for the opportunity to love you and support you and encourage you and build you up in what you are doing.

As we follow after Jesus taking up our cross, all of these things come to bear. Followers of Jesus receive the reward of being more tolerant of people and diversity. This makes sense, too, doesn’t it? If you think about it, the reason our tolerance increases is because we, as we follow Him, become like Him. Think about Jesus’ public ministry, all the things He did in those three years as He taught and preached and did miracles and walked among the people. There are not many examples of intolerant behavior, are there? There just aren’t. Instead, you see how gentle He is with a woman caught in adultery. Instead, you see how loving He is with the little children the disciples didn’t have time for but Jesus did. He loved them and He blessed them. Instead, you see how compassionate He is toward those who have lost loved ones, how His heart goes out to the widow whose only son has died. Instead, you see how deeply distressed He is for Jerusalem who stubbornly had rejected God’s servants.

As we take up our cross, we become more like Jesus and we begin to see things the way He does. We receive the heart of Jesus for the poor and the sick. We take on the tenderness of Jesus for our spouse and for our children and we, too, are concerned about what’s happening in the world around us and in our communities and so we look for ways to help.

This leads to the final reward that is mentioned by George Gallop. That is people who are in that top 12% highly spiritually committed people who take up their cross look for opportunities in their community to give back. They serve on boards of community organizations. They volunteer in schools. They build homes for low income families. They start up food pantries and help people with their income taxes. They volunteer at hospitals and senior centers. They freely and generously give of themselves because God has freely and generously given to them. And now they are followers, not merely admirers.

To win an Olympic medal is a rare accomplishment, something wonderful that you can share with your grandchildren. To be in the top 10 of American Idol can make you world famous and launch your career in show business. But to be in the top 12% of Christians, to be highly spiritually committed means that God is using you to pass out the eternal riches of knowing Jesus Christ as your Savior. Think of the possibilities, that in you, God can begin a chain of blessings stretching from here to eternity. Think of that and then take up your cross and follow Jesus. Amen.