Four hallmarks of discipleship; Luke 17:1-10

As we continue in the gospel of Luke we look now at a continuation of a message that Jesus was giving to a mixed multitude that included three types of people in attendance.  There was the self righteous, haughty Pharisees who practiced their religion  to be seen of men but whose motives were known by God to be self serving and done for men’s approval.  But they were not counted righteous by God.  And there was a second group of people who were present which was largely made up of the curious.  They were there because it was something different, they were curious, they were perhaps hoping to see some miracle, but they were in a state of flux; they listened to the message of Jesus, but they had not become followers of Christ.  And then there is the third category, which were the disciples; not just the 12, but a group of men and women that were following Him as He went from place to place.  They were actively pursuing the gospel as Jesus presented the message of the kingdom of God.  And as I have said repeatedly as we have been studying Luke, Jesus does not boil His message down to a simple formula which by doing these 3 steps in this particular order you become a member of the kingdom.  But rather Jesus continues to add perspective and layers of truth to the message as He moves from place to place preaching.  And so there is a sense that if you want to be a disciple of Christ, you must follow Him and persevere in listening and obeying the truth as He parcels it out, if you truly want to be a disciple. 

So I have titled today’s message the “four hallmarks of discipleship.”  This is not an exhaustive list.  This is what Jesus gave on that day, at that time.  It is another layer, another level of truth that He is disclosing.  He is adding more detail as He goes.  And so today we are looking at this portion of the message which is addressed to the disciples in attendance in particular.  He has been previously speaking a lot about faith and repentance as requirements to enter the kingdom.  Now today Jesus expands on those subjects by saying how faith and repentance will be employed in the kingdom.  It’s not all that needs to be said about discipleship or all that He will say about it.  But it is another step in their journey, their walk of sanctification, in their walk of discipleship.  And so these four hallmarks should also be true of us; if we call ourselves Christians, then that means that we are modern day disciples or followers of Christ.  We cannot in good conscience call ourselves Christians and not follow His teaching.  Jesus said if you love Me, you will keep My commandments.  So these four principles should provide a sort of check list for us as well, if we have truly decided to follow Christ. 

Now the first principle that Jesus gives is that a true disciple will not put a stumbling block before others.  Vs. 1, “Jesus said to His disciples, “It is inevitable that stumbling blocks come, but woe to him through whom they come!  It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea, than that he would cause one of these little ones to stumble.”

Perhaps there is someone here today that doesn’t know what a millstone is.  I’m sure that you have all seen pictures or paintings of some of the old mills that used to be built in this country along side of streams or rivers.  Various types of grain mills would use the power of the rushing water to turn a great huge paddle wheel which  turned a large, heavy round grindstone.  Or it could be powered by windmills or even by oxen. But whatever the power source this extremely heavy millstone would be turned over grain to produce flour.  If you travel N. on 113 as you enter the town of Millsboro you can see a large example of a millstone at the town limits.  

And what Jesus says is that people are inevitably going to fall into sin.  There are going to be temptations that cause people to stumble and sin.  Temptations are unavoidable while we are in this world.  But woe to that person who causes someone to stumble.  Who leads someone into sin, or teaches someone a false doctrine which leads them to sin, or who by their lifestyle encourages someone to sin.  Woe to that person.  A woe is a promise from God that He will bring divine retribution upon that person that causes someone to stumble.

So to emphasize how God views this terrible tragedy of causing someone to stumble, Jesus says it would be better to have a millstone hung around the offending person’s neck and thrown into the sea.  Well obviously having a millstone around your neck would plunge you to the ocean’s floor and hold you there until you were  drowned.  Jesus is dramatizing the nature of God’s wrath and retribution against those that put a stumbling block before others.  But the point is that we should be willing to lose our own life if necessary to keep from causing another to stumble. 

Now this is a concept that is very hard for 21^st century Christians in America to understand.  We have been so indoctrinated with the idea that we have been given certain rights as individuals.  We think that our rights are inalienable.  That they are God given rights.  And nobody better step on my rights, or they will be sorry.  We have all kinds of special interest groups out there today that are clamoring for their rights to be recognized.  They say their rights are being neglected.  And yet the message of Jesus Christ says that as disciples our rights are to be subjugated to the priorities of the kingdom of God.  Our individual bodies are not as important as the body of Christ. 

Folks, I can tell you right now that if we really got hold of that principle, if we practiced that principle, then the divorce rate in the church would drop from 50% where it is today to about 5%.  We are too busy living as the unsaved are living; preoccupied with self fulfillment, with protecting our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, living for the moment, living for our pleasure as if there is no eternity. 

This is the point of the parable of the rich man we looked at last week.  He lived for himself. He had a paraplegic beggar living on his doorstep but he was too busy tending to his own needs to be concerned about his neighbors.  He invested in the present.  He was rich in the world’s goods but poor in the kingdom of God.  And when he died he found himself destitute.  He found himself in hell.  That isn’t supposed to be the attitude of a Christian.  We are to be like Christ.  If we call ourselves disciples then we are to show the love of Christ who was willing to lay down His life for sinners.  That is what we are to be like.  Dying to self, serving the kingdom and it’s citizens.  It’s not about defending my rights, but about expanding the kingdom.  That is why Jesus reminds the Pharisees about the commandment regarding divorce in chapter 16:18.  They said they were in the kingdom of God, but they ignored the commandment against divorce in order to act out their lusts and as such they caused others to suffer, they caused people to fall into sin.  They caused their wives and those that married them to sin by adultery.  They caused people to stumble by their self interest.

Listen, a true disciple is characterized by humility; he will consider the needs of others before he champions his own freedom.  There are a lot of so called Christians out there that believe they can do whatever they want in the name of Christian liberty.  They like to have their alcohol when they feel like it and they don’t care if it causes someone who is weaker to fall.  They like to use profanity when they feel like it, and they don’t care if it causes a brother to fall.  I’m suggest something radical; some people would do the kingdom of God a better service if they didn’t tell others that they were a Christian.  They give Christians a bad name.  If you’re going to cuss out your employees on a regular basis, then please take the Christian bumper sticker off your truck.  If you’re going to lose your temper and act like the devil, then please do God a favor and take any reference to Christianity off the sign in front of your business.  I’m sorry if that makes some of you mad, but it needs to be said.  God doesn’t need your help.  God wants your obedience.  He wants us to act like Jesus Christ in all we do.  That’s what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

And ladies, if you call yourself Christians, then you need to protect those weak men who might fall into sin because of the way you are dressed.  Yes, they need to practice self control.  Yes they need to stop thinking like sex perverts.  But you also have a responsibility to God to not be a stumbling block to men who find you sexually appealing.  You can still be fashionable and attractive and not be a stumbling block.  I have a suggestion, the next time you are looking in your closet for what to wear, ask God what he thinks of that outfit. And then decide whether or not you should wear it based on what He thinks, rather than based on your liberty.

Paul says in 1Cor. 10:23, “All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify.”  Bottom line is, your rights, even your life is not as important as the protection of others who you might cause to stumble.  A true disciple will lay down his life, lay down his rights for the sake of his brothers or sisters in Christ or to lead someone to Christ. 

The second hallmark of a true disciple is that they will forgive even as God forgives us.  Vs. 3, “Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.  And if he sins against you seven times a day, and returns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.”

Now this principle has two parts to it.  The first is, if he stumbles, if he sins, then we are told to rebuke them.  This principle of rebuking is explicitly stated in 2 Timothy as a job description of pastors.  It says in  2Tim. 4:2, “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.”   But all of us as Christians, as Christ followers have a responsibility to rebuke those that are in sin.  Ephesians 4:15 says we are to speak the truth in love.  We are required to be compassionate, but not weak. 

But at the same time, notice that we are required to go to that person.  The tendency is when someone sins against you, or offends you, is to go to everyone else but that person.  We tell everyone else what a miserable cretin such and such is because of what they did.  But we fail to have the courage to go straight to the person and confront them, and them alone.  But that is what Jesus is requiring of us.  We confront them in compassion, desiring their repentance.  We desire to see them get things right.  But this also requires that we first examine ourselves.  It’s tough to go to your brother or your wife or your friend and confront them over their sin, if you are guilty of the same thing.  You first have to get the log out of your own eye before you can see clearly to get the splinter out of another’s.  So there is an element of self purification here.  In order to confront someone over their sin, you have to first deal with your own. 

In Matt.18:15 Jesus lays this principle out in more detail.  He says, “If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother.  But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED.  If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”  This passage is one of the texts upon which we base church discipline.  It’s a difficult thing sometimes to do.  But we are commanded to do it.  We don’t have time to get into it in detail today, but notice that the first step is to confront him in private.  In private.  Don’t broadcast it. 

Back in our text of Luke 17, Jesus says if that person repents you are to forgive.  In Matthew He says if he repents then you have won your brother.  That’s the goal.  And then Jesus adds that if he sins against you 7 times in a day and each time he repents, then you continue to forgive him.  The point isn’t to keep score and say, “ok, he’s got one more chance and then I’ll get him.”  Jesus tells Peter back in Matthew 18 again that you are to forgive him seventy times seven.  In other words, don’t keep score.  Forgive others even as you have been forgiven.

And by the way, since it’s father’s day let me say this; us fathers need to practice forgiveness towards our kids the way our heavenly Father practices forgiveness towards us.  As men we sometimes think that our job is to crack the whip, to apply discipline.  To lay down the law.   And maybe it is.  God does all that as well.  But thankfully for our sakes, God is a merciful, compassionate God.  The Bible says that the kindness of God leads us to repentance.  We think it’s the judgment of God that brings repentance.  But God prefers to be compassionate and merciful first and foremost.  Only when He has satisfied His compassion and mercy does He apply justice.  So I would just encourage you fathers to practice the compassion of God towards your children and strive for a balance with your family. James 2:13 “For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.”

Thirdly, a true disciple will have faith unto obedience.  As the disciples consider the weight of what Jesus is saying, and how difficult it is to do what He is commanding, they rightly say unto Jesus in vs. 5, “Lord, increase our faith.”  They recognize the difficulty of doing it in their own strength.  But I’m afraid that these two verses and others like it have sprung up a false doctrine that is called the word of faith movement.  But this is not what the disciples are asking for nor what Jesus is offering.  They are recognizing that in their strength, in their flesh, they will have difficulty in doing the things that Jesus is asking of them.  And they are right in that.  So they ask Jesus to increase their faith.  Help them to have the faith to do what Jesus is asking them to do. 

And that is exactly what faith is.  Faith is not a monkey wrench by which you can manipulate God to get Him to do what you want Him to do.  That attitude makes you Master and God your personal genie.  Faith is not a name it and claim it attitude whereby whatever you want to happen God will do if you just want it bad enough, or believe that He will do it hard enough.  Faith is not wishful thinking, or wishing really, really hard.  Faith, quite simply, is believing what God says to do, and then doing it.  I’m going to say that again.  Faith is believing what God says to do, and then doing it.  Faith is believing in the promises of God which He has written down and then being obedient to that word.  Faith is not listening to some voice in your head that you ascribe to God who told you to buy that dress at Macy’s even though you don’t have enough money to buy it .  That’s not God’s voice in your head.  God speaks through His word. Lam. 3:37, “Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it?”  You can’t speak things into existence unless God has first ordained it. 

Vs. 6 is not a blank check to command anything we want to happen in the name of faith.  The Lord said, “If you had faith like a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and be planted in the sea’; and it would obey you.”  This statement is not meant to make it easier for Christians to do their yard work, but it is a picture, an illustration that if something seems impossible from a human standpoint, if you are obedient in faith to what God has told you to do He will make it possible. Mulberry trees were noted for their immense root system which is said to be able to stay alive for 600 years.  So this unrootable tree can be uprooted by faith and tossed in the sea.  Something that God has commanded, but which I find almost impossible to do in the flesh, Jesus says can be done by faith in God’s strength. Faith is obedience to what God has commanded, even when I don’t feel like it.  Faith is obedience to what God has commanded even when it  is going to be difficult.  Faith is obedience to what God has commanded even if it costs me my liberty, even if it costs me my life.  Remember that Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane cried out to God to deliver Him from the cup of suffering that He was going through.  But He qualified that by saying “Not my will but your will be done.” When someone has sinned against me, offended me, hurt me so bad I think I can never get over it, never forgive them, Jesus says in faith that root of bitterness can be uprooted, so that we might be like Christ and forgive those who sin against us.

Finally, the fourth hallmark of a  true disciple is that he will do his duty no matter how great the cost.  Vs. 7 "Which of you, having a slave plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, 'Come immediately and sit down to eat'? 8 "But will he not say to him, 'Prepare something for me to eat, and properly clothe yourself and serve me while I eat and drink; and afterward you may eat and drink'? 9 "He does not thank the slave because he did the things which were commanded, does he? 10 "So you too, when you do all the things which are commanded you, say, 'We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done.'"

Here is the gist of what Jesus is teaching.  He has already made it clear that you don’t do your deeds to be seen of men.  Now He’s teaching that you don’t do your deeds to manipulate God into doing something special for you.  This is the other side of the word of faith movement that I was speaking of a moment ago.  They teach that if you really have faith then you will send them some money, even if you don’t really have it.  They say that is seed faith.  Then God will honor the seed faith that you planted by sending them money and God will refund that to you 10 times over.  It’s a very convenient doctrine for the false teachers.  They get rich but you get swindled. 

But I’m afraid this false doctrine has found it’s way into a lot of Christian thinking.  If we do this or that for God, then we think that somehow that obligates God to do something for us – usually our definition of blessing.  But Jesus says that God isn’t obligated to do something special for us because we have fulfilled our responsibility. 

The blessing is that God has chosen to use you in spite of your flaws, in spite of your unworthiness, in spite of how many times you may have proven yourself unfaithful.  There is a reward for a faithful servant of God.  Eye has not seen and ear has not heard the marvelous things that God has prepared that for those that love Him.  But that reward is in heaven and will be awarded to us in eternity.  But all you need to do is look at the lives of the apostles and the early disciples and see what kind of earthly rewards they got for preaching the gospel and following Christ.  Jesus said no servant is greater than His master.  And consequently all the apostles save John suffered martyrdom.  They were imprisoned.  They lived as outcasts from society.  They were flogged.  They were publicly scorned and ridiculed.  They left jobs, families and everything for the sake of following Christ. 

Listen, Jesus made it clear in chapter 14 at the beginning of this message that a disciple must first count the cost of following Him.  He said in Luke 14:27

“Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.”  There is a cost in following Christ.  And there is great reward in following Christ.  But the suffering comes before the glory.  Romans 8:17 says that we are fellow heirs of Christ if we suffer with Him, then we shall also be glorified with Him.

Jesus is making it clear that if a true disciple is going to do the will of God, then he will be called upon to suffer, he must bear his cross, he must deny himself, he must serve God before he serves himself.  That is our duty as Christians.  To serve the Master as a faithful servant. 

I read recently the story of Vice Admiral Lord Nelson who commanded the English Royal Navy in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.  This battle was considered one of England’s greatest victories, in which they defeated the French and Spanish navies.  Lord Nelson lost his life in that battle after being shot by a sniper.  But prior to that, he had lost an arm in another battle, and then after recovering from that lost the sight in an eye during another battle.  So the fact that he was even still in the fight at that point, still serving his country is remarkable and shows his courage and perseverance.  But as the battle of Trafalgar was about to be engaged, just before his death, he sent a message by signal flags out to all the ships.  The message was; “England expects that every man will do his duty.”  As the message circulated by flags throughout the Royal fleet, it is said that a cheer went up from each of the various ships.  And though the Royal Navy won the battle, Lord Nelson himself did his duty to England to the hilt, he paid the ultimate sacrifice. 

Such patriotism and reverence for country and king seems quite heroic, that men are willing to suffer and even die for their country.  But as Christians, what higher calling have we been given?  Citizenship in the kingdom of heaven expects no less.  The Lord Jesus Christ sends out his message today to all that are within His kingdom.  He says, “The kingdom of God expects that every man will do his duty.”  I pray that God will increase your faith so that you might do His will, no matter what the cost.  Let us pray.