Immanuel Sermon Audio
Luke 9:46-62
If you have your Bible, I want you to find the Gospel of Luke. We're going to look at the last part of chapter nine this morning. On a Sunday like Easter, you always sort of wonder, should we take a break from what we're talking about in our normal Sunday morning series to talk specifically about the resurrection? Maybe look at a passage like 1 Corinthians 15 we read earlier, or maybe just jump ahead in Luke and look at the story of the resurrection. But really, when you thought about the Gospel of Luke and you understand that this is the theme of Luke, the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost, you understand that everything that Luke is telling us fits under the umbrella of Good Friday and Easter. And so the passage we're looking at this morning, we know fits, but as I studied it this week, especially I was struck by how appropriate of a passage it is for a Good Friday weekend and then an Easter Sunday, and so we're going to continue this morning in our study of Luke. We're in chapter nine, you can follow along on the outline if you'd like to do that. Here's the big idea of our passage, very, very simple. When Jesus saves someone who was lost, he calls that person to genuine discipleship. When he saves somebody who was lost, he calls them to genuine discipleship. Now just to be honest with you, I realize that the word genuine is a little bit redundant. And in a perfect world, we wouldn't need that word up there. We would just say Jesus calls people to be disciples. But you know, and I know that we live in a place and a time where people are confused about what it really means to be a disciple of Jesus. What does it mean to follow Jesus? What does it mean to be a Christian? There's a lot of different ideas about that. Some people sort of have the understanding. Well, it means that you grew up in a certain faith tradition or a certain family and you went to a building on Sundays and maybe you got sprinkled as a baby or maybe you got dunked up in a baptistry like that at some point in your life. Some people think, well, you know, it means that you have prayed a prayer or it means that you've gone down front and shook hands with the preacher and they introduced you. Lots of different ideas about what does it mean to be a disciple? Lots of, to be honest with you, confusion about what does it mean to be a disciple? And listen, that's not anything unique to our day because Jesus faced it in His day. He faced it with some of His own disciples who were still trying to figure out what does it mean to follow this guy and some other people who were interested or curious about following Him and Jesus sets them straight. I want you to look before we read the passage. Look over at Luke 951. This is going to be a key verse this morning. Luke 951, when the days drew near for Him to be taken up, He set His face to go to Jerusalem. I want you to see that this verse, Luke 951, is a pivot in the gospel of Luke, right? Luke 951 is really introducing a new section in what Luke is telling us about the story of Jesus. The first two chapters of Luke talk about the coming of the Son of Man. The next few chapters, chapter three up to about nine, talk about the Son of Man who came. What was He like? What's His true nature, His identity? Now the next ten or so chapters, beginning with this verse, Luke 951, begin to focus on Jesus' last march to Jerusalem. He has now set His face to go, and He doesn't take an exact straight as the crow flies trip. It's sort of a wandering trip, but the decision has been made. I'm going to Jerusalem, and Luke says He set His face to do that. We'll come back and talk about that verse at the end of our time. Look at the passage, and let's read it together. Luke 9, beginning in verse 46, the Word of God says that an argument arose among them as to which of them was the greatest. But Jesus, knowing the reasoning of their hearts, took a child and put Him by His side, and He said to them, "Whoever receives this child and my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives Him who sent me, for He who is least among you all is the one who is great." John answered, "Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop Him because He does not follow with us, but Jesus said to Him, 'Do not stop Him for the one who is not against you is for you.'" When the days drew near for Him to be taken up, He set His face to go to Jerusalem, and He sent messengers ahead of Him who went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make preparations for Him. But the people did not receive Him because His face was set toward Jerusalem. And when His disciples, James and John saw it, they said, "Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" But He turned and rebuked them, and they went on to another village. Because they were going along the road, someone said to Him, "I'll follow you wherever you go." Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head." To another, He, Jesus said, "Follow me." But He, the man, said, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father." And Jesus said to Him, "Leave the dead to bury their own dead, but as for you go and proclaim the kingdom of God." Yet another said, "I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to those at my home." And no one who puts his hand to the plow in looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. This is the word of God. Let's pray. Father, we're grateful for the gift of music where we can express our hearts to you and we're grateful for your word, and we believe that it's true. And our prayer this morning is that you would speak to us, that you would open our eyes to truth about discipleship, what it is and what it isn't. Father, that we would see the grace and the mercy of Jesus that was poured out at the cross and that we celebrate on Easter Sunday. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. I told you before that when we lived in Kingfisher, it was sort of a new deal for us moving to a small town, and by small I mean about 5,000 people. And there were some folks who sort of talked to us and said, "You know, you never lived in a small town. Let us give you some pointers." And they were genuinely helpful pointers about sort of fitting into life in a small town, especially when you're the pastor of First Baptist Church. And one of the things they said is, "You need to join a civic club. You need to be part of one of these clubs in town. We have lions, we have rotary, whatever." And I said, "Okay, I had a friend at church, a new friend who was the president of rotary." And so I said, "I'll go to rotary. I don't know a thing about lions or rotary, but they invited me and I said, "Let's go." So I went to rotary. And initially I thought, "This is really not that big of a deal. This is okay. They want you to pay your dues quarterly. And they want you to come to lunch on Tuesday. Easy." I can make time for lunch on Tuesday. I can pay my dues. This is not that I like most of the guys who go eat lunch Tuesday and the food was pretty good. Snyder's catering, right downtown in Kingfisher. Oh, this is a pretty good deal. So I joined rotary. And that's what I thought they were asking of me, "Pay the dues. Come to lunch." And then the weeks go on and the months go on and I realized they want a little bit more than that. Just your dues and lunch at Snyder's on Tuesdays. They want you to sell tickets to events, fundraisers. They want you to contribute money out of your own pocket over and above your dues to raise money for this cause or for that cause and they expected that. One thing they expect you to do is to bring two $1 bills every Tuesday. Put them in the can, $1 goes in the pot, $1 goes for the raffle and you take a ticket and every Tuesday we had a raffle. See who would win, half the pot, half the money goes to rotary. So I learned you're supposed to bring two $1 bills when you go to rotary. You put them in the can, take a ticket. I learned you're supposed to help at the annual calf fry fundraiser. They expect you to be there. That's part of being on, they want you to serve on a committee. They want you to do this and this and about a year into it, sort of a light bulb went off and I thought, "What have I got myself into?" They expect a lot more than I thought they expected up front. And maybe at some point in your life a church has done that to you. You've sort of thought, "You know, I think all they want is for me to drop a 20 in the plate and show up on Sunday mornings. I can do that. Don't have anything else going on. Sunday mornings. Don't mind putting a 20 in there. This is a pretty good deal." And then the more you are around the guilt trip sort of came on and they started to tell you, "Whoa, we want you to do this and we want you to do that. Listen to me." Sometimes churches do that. Jesus never did that. He never pulled the bait and switch with people. He never tried to make it sound like he wasn't asking for much to get people in and then once he got them in, he changes his tune and he starts asking for a lot. We do that sometimes as churches and when we share the gospel with other people. We do that. Jesus never did it. He was always up front, always clear, always direct in telling people, "If you want to follow me, here are the things that I'm asking you to do. Here's the things that I expect of you." And so this morning I want you to hear straight from the mouth of Jesus, six warnings about discipleship and they are warnings. This is Jesus saying, "If you're serious about following me, here's a few things I need to warn you about upfront. I don't want you to turn around six months down the road and say, "You didn't know this was coming. I'm telling you upfront, this is what I'm looking for in a disciple." So here we go. "Followers of Jesus do not expect to be recognized as great." They're not in it for recognition. This is verse 46, 47 and 48. We read about the 12 and they're arguing and they're arguing about which one of them is the greatest. It's a stupid argument. Obviously Jesus is the greatest and they're all tied for a distant, distant, distant second. But they're arguing. Probably Peter, James or John or all three of them started the argument because you remember Peter, James and John, they got to go and they got to see Jairus' daughter healed, those three only, no one else. And then a few weeks later they got to go up the mountain with Jesus and see him transfigured. And Luke says they didn't tell anybody what they saw but they knew what they saw. And so it's probably one of these three guys looking back saying, "Hey, you know, we are the top three." And of the top three, clearly I'm the leader or clearly Jesus likes me best. And they're arguing. And Luke says that Jesus knows their heart and he rebukes them. And he says, "You guys need to quit worrying about pecking order and you need to start worrying about children. What can a child do to improve your status?" Nothing. Think about people who don't care about status and who can't help you in your elevated view of your own status. You're not in it to be recognized. And so we ask ourselves the question, "Why do we come to church on Sunday morning?" I hope it's not so that other people see you. Why do you teach a Sunday school class? Why do you help at VBS? Why do you help lead music on Sunday morning? Why do you serve in the nursery? Is it only so that someone will pat you on the back and you can feel appreciated and valuable and needed? Because that's not what following Jesus is about. It's not about being recognized as great. It's about being last. They're not in it to be recognized as great. Number two, followers of Jesus do not try to control the service of others. Sort of a humorous story where John, the apostle, says, "We saw a guy casting out demons in your name and we told him to quit." You say, "Why would John do that?" Maybe part of it is that he just came down the mountain of transfiguration with Jesus and the other nine were down trying to do what? Cast out a demon and they couldn't do it and they were frustrated. They'd all done it on their preaching tour but now they came back and they realized the power wasn't in them and it just didn't work like magic. And so they see this other man casting out demons and John tells him to quit. And Jesus looks at John and this is my personal paraphrase and he says, "John, would you take a chill pill? Would you just take a breath and think about what you're doing? This man is casting out demons. He's helping people and he's doing it in my name." And look what Jesus says in verse 50, interesting statement, "Do not stop him for the one who is not against you is for you." If they're not your enemy, they're with you. Now you balance that statement, hold your spot there and flip over to Luke 11, verse 23 and look what Jesus says. Luke 11, 23. Luke 9, 50 is, "If they're not against you, they're for you." Luke 11, 23, "If they're not with you, they're against you." The exact opposite. If they're not against you, they're for you and then he turns around two chapters later and he says, "If they're not with you, they're against you." And what he's saying is, "There's no neutrality in following me. You're either in or you're out, for me or against me." To quote some of my friends in Kentucky, "You're either firm or a guinea." There's no middle ground. Make your decision. And he's telling John that so that John will understand you don't need to control the service of someone who is for us. John, you need to worry about you following me and let that person worry about them following me. So we ask ourselves a few questions and we say, "How do you feel when you invite a friend to come to your class, but they don't come to your class, they go to someone else's class? Or how do you feel when you have a ministry or a project that is very near and dear to your heart and you try to share it with others and encourage others to be a part of it?" And it just doesn't click with them and they're just not interested. Do you look at those people who are not coming to your side and do you look down on them? Do you judge them? Do you think less of them because they're not involved in what you're involved in? Or do you understand my job is to follow Jesus and your job is to follow Jesus and I don't really have any business telling you how to follow Jesus in the specifics following and I'll do the same, but my job is not to control you in your service to Jesus, in your service to others. Number three, followers of Jesus are not concerned with retaliation, not concerned with retaliation. Verse 51 to 56, "Jesus and his Jewish friends are up north in Galilee and they're traveling down to Jerusalem." Remember, he said his face to go to Jerusalem. Normally, the Jews would sort of take a wide out of the way road to miss Samaria, but Jesus really didn't do that very much. He just took the direct route and he went straight through Samaria. There they go, a bunch of Jews walking through Samaria, Samaritans hate the Jews, Jews hate the Samaritans, Jesus sent some guys into town to see if they can stay and when the Samaritans find out that a bunch of Jews heading to Jerusalem want to stop and enjoy their hospitality, they say, "No, you just keep moving." James and John hear that, apparently they weren't the ones who went in, they hear the report brought back and they say, "Let's nuke them. Let's just kill them all." That's an interesting response, John and James, because if you look in your Bible at Luke 9.5, Jesus told them what to do when they're not received someplace. It did not involve thermonuclear weapons. It did not involve fire and brimstone from the sky. Jesus said, "You shake the dust off your feet and you move on." You go to a place, they don't want to listen, that's okay. Shake the dust off your feet, you move on, you go somewhere else. And James and John take that and somehow in their minds over the last few months it's become clouded and muddled and they say, "Reject it, let's kill them all." You and I live in a time and a place that is becoming less and less Christian every day. You understand that? You understand that with each month and each year that goes on we will face more rejection, different types of rejection. You understand that that's coming. You understand that our job is not retaliation. Our job is to respond with grace. Sometimes you do need to shake your dust off your feet and move on somewhere else. But our job is trusting God to make things right in the end, not taking vengeance into our own hands. Here's the cool part. John and James are struggling with this, but eventually they got it. And you just jot down on your notes, if you're taking notes, you just jot down Acts 8.25. You can go read it later today, Acts 8.25. Guess who, after Jesus died, rose from the dead, went back to heaven. Guess who went to preach in the villages of Samaria? John. The very guy who said, "Let's blow them all up." Just a few months later goes and he says, "You guys need to hear the good news about Jesus Christ." He died. He rose from the dead and he's offering you life. It's not retaliation. Number four, followers of Jesus do not expect financial prosperity in this life. Notice that it doesn't say they will not ever experience financial prosperity in this life. That's not the point. I'm not telling you you're going to certainly be poor. I'm not telling you there's a problem with wealth. What I'm telling you is when you sign up with Jesus, you don't expect financial prosperity to come your way simply because you've aligned yourself with Jesus Christ, verse 57 in 58. There's a man who comes to Jesus and says, "I will follow you wherever you go." And Jesus looks at him and says, "I don't even have a bed." I don't even own a pillow. How hard is it for us as Americans to wrap our arms around the truth that the most important and the most influential person who ever walked the earth owned nothing? We think you've got to own some stuff. I've got to have a big house to entertain people. I've got to have a car for ministry. I've got to have this. I've got to have that. Jesus didn't have anything. I don't even have a place to lay my head down. And what he's saying to this man is, "You follow me wherever I go? Great. I'm just going to tell you up front. Don't do it for the money. Don't follow me, because you think your bank account will always be full as long as you're faithful to me. It's not how it works. Don't expect financial blessings." Now, again, does that mean that people with financial blessings and full bank accounts are somehow not following Jesus? No. Jesus had some people following him around, a group of ladies who were women of means who supported him. They had money. It was okay. You get to the book of Acts. There's some people like Lydia who have a lot of money, apparently have multiple homes. That's okay. What Jesus is saying is, "You may or you may not have it." Paul learned that lesson, right? I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, and what he's saying is, "I can have a lot of money. I can have no money. I can be rich. I can be poor. I can do all things who Christ who strengthens me." Either way, it's okay, because I didn't sign up to follow Jesus expecting financial benefit. Number five, followers of Jesus do not delay in their obedience. Verse 59 and 60. I remember as a kid reading these verses and just as a child, sometimes you picture things that aren't right. I just had in my mind a man, a son, standing by in the empty graveside, and the casket was there, just ready to be lowered down, and they're just sort of almost like waiting on the preacher to show up to do the graveside service, and they're just waiting to bury the guy, and Jesus says, "No, you can't stay for the rest of the funeral." Thinking, "Oh, that's kind of weird." But Jewish people typically buried their dead within 24 hours. They didn't wait like we do because of embalming issues. They buried them within 24 hours, and they typically stayed with the body, the deceased person, until they put them in the ground. So most scholars say, when this guy says, "Let me bury my father," he's really not about to do it because if he was about to do it, he would be about to do it. He wouldn't be talking to Jesus. He'd be sitting in the home with the body, or he'd be out burying his father, actually, "Let's get it done, 24 hours." What this guy is probably saying is, "Jesus, there is a time coming down the road in my life where I might be available to follow you." Right now is really not the best time. I have a lot going on. I have some things that I need to take care of. But once I put these things in order, then I might be willing to follow you. And Jesus is saying to the man, "Look, if you're going to follow me, there's no delay. There's no waiting for the next stage of life. Like suddenly you won't be busier. You won't have any other excuses once you get to this point in your life. If you're going to follow me, you do it now. And you can interpret, let the dead bury their dead. Lots of different ways to interpret that. The point is pretty obvious. Jesus is telling the guy, "Don't delay. You need to do it now. If you're going to follow me, it needs to happen today." And so we step back from that and we ask ourselves, "What is there that might be keeping us from following Jesus today? Are we waiting on a life event to transpire? Are we thinking, "Once I get out of college, it will be easier to follow Jesus? Once I get married, it will be easier to follow Jesus. Once I have kids, it will be easier to follow Jesus. Once I get rid of my kids, it will be easier to follow Jesus. Once I don't have to work anymore, it will be easier to follow Jesus." And then you die. Don't delay. You follow immediately. Number six, followers of Jesus. See, think of, view following Jesus as the most important thing in their life. This one is the toughest one to me. Not just the principle, but the story. Jesus looks at a guy in the man says to Jesus, "I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to those in my home." Jot down 1 Kings 19. You can read 1 Kings 19 later. It's a very simple story and it goes like this. There was a prophet named Elijah, Elijah, and he walks by a young man named Eli Shah. And Eli Jah puts his cloak on Eli Shah saying, "You follow me. Let's go. You're the new prophet." And Eli Shah, the new prophet, looks at Eli Jah, the old prophet, and he says, "Can I first go home and kiss my mom and dad and have a party?" The guy here says to Jesus, "Can I first go back and say farewell to those at my house?" Same thing. Eli Jah looks at Eli Shah and says, "Go." You can do it. And he goes home and he kisses his mom and dad and they have a big potluck dinner and they celebrate. And then he follows. He goes with him. And this guy, maybe he's thinking of 1 Kings 19 and he says, "I'm ready to go. Let's go. Let me do one thing. Remember, Eli Shah got to do this. Can I do the one thing?" And Jesus looks at him and says, "No. You can't. I'm not like Elijah. I'm a bigger deal than Elijah. And if you're going to follow me, it's got to be the most important thing in your life." And I think in the United States, I think we've missed that. I think we talk about Jesus as an add-on to our pretty decent, comfortable lives. Jesus is just going to come along and somehow make your life better. Jesus is going to give you this get into heaven free ticket so that you don't have to go to hell when you die. And what Jesus is saying is, "If you're going to be my disciple, I want our relationship to be more important than anything else in your life." Number one, more important than your comfort, more important than your safety, more important than your five-year plan, more important than your retirement. I want to be the most important. And that may rub you the wrong way. You may hear that and say, "Man, that's asking a lot. That's what He's asking. I want this to be the most important thing in your life." Let me sum it up with three thoughts about discipleship. And now we're going to back out from these verses and sort of think about the whole gospel of Luke, discipleship in the context of Luke. Number one, discipleship is not a casual affair. It's not a casual affair. I said something to the effect of, and some of you nodded and sort of, "Mm-hmm," said some of the effect that we live in a place in a time that's becoming less and less Christian each day. Okay? I think most of us could probably agree with that. Would it surprise you if I told you that I think that's a good thing? It would surprise you if I told you that what I think is happening in the United States in "big idea of Christianity and the seeming shrinking of it" is a good thing. Would that shock you? Would that upset you? You can look at stats and you can see pretty clearly that church attendance generationally is on the decline in the United States of America. It's not just falling through the basement, but it is in clear decline. Very few denominations or groups are seeing an increase, and the vast majority are seeing a decrease. Church attendance is sort of going down. But what's happening in that when you look inside the numbers is maybe it could be best described as a winnowing, and maybe you could just say cultural Christianity is sort of fading to the background. You know I'm a visual person, so let me put a visual up on the screen for you, okay? This is not to scale, but just sort of stay with me. Let's say over on the left side we have genuine disciples, right? People who understand what it means to follow Jesus, and over there on the right side we have non-Christians. These are people who do not claim to be Christian. Maybe they adhere to some other religion, maybe they're atheist, maybe they're just sort of nothing. They don't pretend to be Christians. But this is what it used to be like in the United States where you had a big fuzzy middle. People who claim the name of Jesus Christ, and if they're filling out a survey for Barna or Gallop or Pew or whatever, they would self-identify as a Christian. But if you could step back and look at their life you would say, you know, this discipleship stuff, I think you missed Luke 9, Luke 9 in your life they just don't seem to line up, and so you've got this big sort of fuzzy middle of nominal Christianity. And I think what you see happening when you're looking inside the numbers of church attendance going down is you see that nominal Christian section in the middle just sort of shrinking down. It's still there, but it's getting a lot smaller. And a lot of those people who used to sort of on the pole self-identify as Christian, but really they didn't have any impact in their daily life or their relationship with Jesus, a lot of those people now just have the guts to say, you know what, I'm not a Christian. And it's not really that they ever were, it's just that our society is changing daily and people sort of feel more free to just be honest and say, you know what, I'm really not a follower of Jesus. And that far left category, however big you want it to be, I really don't think it's getting a whole lot bigger or a whole lot smaller. But that middle section is disappearing daily with each new generation, it's just going down in the toilet. And what I'm saying to you is I think that's a good thing. Let's be done with the fuzzy middle. Let's just forget about it. Jesus is not offering a third way that could be described as the fuzzy middle nominal Christian in this passage. He's saying very clearly, you want to be my disciple, you want to be a Christian, you want to follow me, one, two, three, four, five, six. These are some of the things that I expect and I want you to know them up front. You're not bait and switching anybody, he's being honest. You may hear all this talk about discipleship, disciples do this, disciples don't do that. It'd be dangerous for you to come away from this passage and on an Easter Sunday you leave and you say, man, there's a lot riding on my shoulders, I got some serious work to do. There is a lot that I need, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I don't want you to miss the true heart of this passage, okay? Discipleship is a lot less about what you are going to do for Jesus and a lot more about what he has already done for you. This is on your outline, thinking about discipleship in the context of Luke number two, Jesus came to seek us and save us and apart from his grace, we are all lost in our small, sinful, self-focused worlds. Understand, sometimes we think discipleship and we hear all these things about discipleship and we say, man, it just sounds like Jesus wants me to be a, his slave, just sounds like Jesus wants me to just be miserable and just give up everything fun. What he's doing is he's calling you out of your small, sinful, self-focused world and he's saying, I've got a lot more for you than what you're wrapped up in right now. And because of the grace that I'm pouring into your life, I'm giving you an invitation to something so much greater. Here's the same thing said a little bit differently. Number three, discipleship is only possible because Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem. Luke 951 says that the days drew near for Jesus to be taken up. That's an amazing verse. Think about that. Look at Luke 951, the days drew near for Jesus to be taken up. Luke is saying something that is, for some people it's very hard to swallow, but Luke is saying this, this whole business about the cross, Jesus dying on the cross, good Friday, there's no accident, it was no tragedy, it's not willy-nilly, fly by the seat of your pants, make it up, call an audible at the last minute, make the best out of a bad situation kind of deal. This is the plan. The day is drawing near. From eternity past, God had a plan to seek and to save sinners by sending Jesus Christ and the day is getting close for that to happen. The day is getting near, and then Luke says Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem, set his face. Those words, he set his face. That means that he made a decisive decision and then he took action. That's what it means. You make a decision and then you take action. So for example, you can read Genesis 31-21, Jacob set his face to run away from Laban. That means Jacob sat down and he said, "Hmm, I need to get out of here. I'm leaving." And he left. He made a decision and he took action. You can read about this in Jeremiah 21-10. The Bible says that God set his face against Jerusalem. He looked at his people and he said, "I've been telling you destruction, exile, punishments coming." He made a decision and he took action and it happened. And now Luke says, "Jesus set his face." He made a decision and he takes action. And the action is, he sets his face to go to Jerusalem. And what happens in Jerusalem? When he finally gets there, the Son of Man seeks and saves the lost. The cross is waiting in Jerusalem. And Jesus makes the decision now that I'm going. And when the day drew close, the day, when the plan was about to be fulfilled at the perfect time on the right day, when the Passover lambs are being slaughtered, the Lamb of God is hung on a cross for the sins of his people. And just like he promised, several times in the Gospel of Luke, three days after dying, he rises from the dead, all of it happens exactly according to plan. And the plan is very, very simple. Jesus came on a rescue mission to seek you and to save you. He extended grace to sinners. And his invitation to you is very clear. I'm calling you to be a disciple. I want you to follow me. I want you to be a Christian, a little Christ. I want this for you, but here's what I'm asking. I came to seek you and save you. And now here's what it means to be my disciple. If you have never in your life embraced what it means to truly be a follower of Jesus, to celebrate and accept that he sought you and he saved you by dying on the cross and rising from the dead three days later. You never accepted that into your life. You never responded with the commitment of saying, "You know what? This is now the most important thing in my entire life. You can do it today." And Jesus would say, "You must do it today. Don't delay. Let's pray." Father, we're thankful for your Word. On Easter Sunday we celebrate the reality that Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem for us. And we know that when he got there, he died. A death that was physically painful, a death that was spiritually far more painful as he took the wrath that should have fallen on us. Father, we believe that three days later the tomb was empty and we believe that Jesus is alive, reigning and sitting on the throne of heaven today. And we're grateful for the clarity that we see in this passage. Father, I pray for those of us in the room as we think about what it means to be a disciple. I pray that there would be no confusion, no fuzzy middle, no misunderstanding about what it means to be a follower of Jesus, but that we would see it clearly and that we would embrace it, that we would gladly leave behind our small, sinful, self-focused little world that's wrapped around ourselves to follow Jesus Christ. Father, we're grateful for your grace. We acknowledge that any response we make to you is because of the grace that you showed us in sending your Son. And we pray in His name, amen. Stand up, we're going to sing a couple of more songs and worship.