Come and Be a Disciple (Matthew 16:24-28)

Jesus has been instructing his disciples about what it means to belong to him. There was a great deal of expectation about what life would be like when the Messiah came and even his disciples were affected by those ideas. So Jesus makes clear that his terms of discipleship are different from that of other leaders, religious and otherwise. It is likely that the Saviour wanted to give his followers clear guidelines about what it means to be a genuine disciple. From what he says here, we can see that genuine disciples keep Jesus before them (they follow him), they persevere in doing so, and they live aware that there is a judgment seat before which they will yet stand.

The Commencement of Discipleship

It is obvious from the comments of Jesus that there is a moment when a disciple begins that way of life. Of course, the moment is a conclusion to a period of thinking about it and that period will differ in length between individuals. As we think of the moment of commencement, we should ask why a person would want to begin this way of life. Several answers can be given to this question.

First, the individual who makes this decision has realised that he can no longer be Number One in his own life. This is what is meant by the call to deny himself. Each person is different and shows autonomy in different ways. But a person cannot become a disciple of Jesus if he intends to remain the director of his own life. So the first feature of a true disciple is that he admits and desires that he is not in charge of his own life.

Second, this decision is made by someone who realises that he is a sinner who deserves to be punished by God. The reason why he knows he is a sinner is because God has told him so from his Word. That individual has stopped assessing himself by what other people think is right and wrong and instead focuses on what the Lord says about sin in his Word. Now he knows that sin is both failure to do what God wants and a determination to do what he does not want. In addition, he knows that sin makes him unclean and not nice to look at.

Third, this decision is made by someone who has understood what Jesus did at the cross when he there paid the penalty of sin. We can see from the context that even Peter did not grasp this essential element of real discipleship, although he did know who Jesus was. Yet there is an obvious reason for Peter’s wrong outlook, which is that he expressed his ideas before Jesus had died. Peter would never have said verse 22 – ‘Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you’ – after Jesus had suffered on the cross. Because the would-be disciple has understood that Jesus became the sinbearer, the desire to follow Jesus is an expression of gratitude as well as dependence.

Fourth, this decision is made by someone who wants to get to heaven. There is only one way of getting there and that is along the straight and narrow path that Jesus leads his followers on. If we decide to go down other paths and follow other opinions than what Jesus requires, we will not get to heaven. This does not mean that the disciple becomes perfect, but it does mean that he makes it his aim to follow Jesus. And when he does fall into sin, he will repent of it and resume following Jesus.

Fifth, this decision is made by someone who is willing to make a public confession that he is following Jesus. It was impossible for a man to take up a cross and hide from others that he had done so. In a literal sense, an individual who had taken up a cross had to walk along the road to a place of execution, and everyone was aware of what was happening to him. Of course, in the literal sense, no one chose a cross; instead it was chosen for him by those in power. A Christian chooses to make a public identification with Jesus.

Sixth, this decision is made by someone who is willing to suffer shame for the sake of Christ. When a person took up a cross, it was usually because he was a criminal of some kind. He had done something which the public would have despised and for which society wanted to punish him. There would not have been rounds of applause for him as he began his walk with his cross, and there would not many willing to stand beside him and help him. People who once knew him would be embarrassed to be seen with him. This can happen when an individual becomes a true disciple of Jesus. People will be ashamed to be seen with him. But the point is that the disciple is willing to bear such shame for the sake of Jesus.

Seventh, this decision is made by someone who stops blindly following other people and their ideas. One of the biggest hindrances to genuine discipleship is listening to the opinions of others instead of the opinions of Jesus. My opinion about something may be interesting or it may be not, but it carries no authority unless it also happens to be an instruction of Jesus. No doubt, we can all make suggestions that are common sense. But that is not what I am talking about. The biggest barrier to beginning the Christian life is often fear of man and if you are thinking of becoming a Christian I would advise you to get rid of such fears.

The continuation of discipleship

How does an individual continue as a disciple? This is a real question because many start out and give up. We can see that is the case from the parable of the sower. In that parable, some gave up right away and others gave up later on, some because of troubles and others because of things.

Jesus mentions two permanent activities of genuine disciples. The first is that they continue to carry the cross and the second is that they follow him. What does it mean to continue carrying the cross? It is common to use the phrase ‘carrying the cross’ to describe a range of personal burdens, but I would say that it is a misuse of the idea to apply it such circumstances. I have heard it used to describe a person’s sore back, but that is not the cross that Jesus is referring to. I have also heard some people use it to describe their bad temper, but they are using the phrase to justify their sin – they should get rid of their bad temper or at least pray to God that he will take it away and change them. A third example that I have heard is when some people use it to describe family members who are not Christians. No doubt, that is a big burden, but it is not what Jesus means when he says that his disciples take up their cross.

We could say that what Jesus means here is that true disciples continue as they began. Step number one on the new journey was done carrying the cross and so should step number one hundred and step number one thousand and step number one million. The cross they carry identifies each step that they take. It means that they publicly identify with Jesus and are always willing to suffer shame for following him. This does not mean that they want to be ridiculed and despised and abused – such experiences are undesirable, but they are willing to undergo them for the sake of Jesus wherever they are. They have an identity and it is that they carry a cross that they took up when they started to follow him.

The second way of continuing as a disciple is to follow Jesus. This is a wonderful picture because it indicates that Jesus is taking them somewhere, and we know where that is – it is heaven. The imagery is taken from the roles played by teachers and their followers – the latter would walk behind the teachers and listen to their words of instruction. Usually when the teacher stopped speaking, the followers would ask him questions or they would discuss among themselves what his teaching meant.

We can see many lessons from this illustration. The first is that a follower would walk closely behind the teacher in order not to miss his teachings. It is obvious that when a follower in a real-life situation walked at a distance from this teacher he would not hear what the teacher was saying. We walk closely with Jesus when we listen to what he says to us in his Word. In addition, the individual would have to listen carefully to what was said, and this illustration applies to when we read God’s Word. Usually when we don’t get what is described in God’s Word, the reason is that we have not been careful in how much attention we paid to what he says.

The response of followers asking questions of a teacher illustrates for us the importance of prayer because in a sense prayer is asking questions from God. Answers to our prayers for instruction and information are given to us by the Holy Spirit enabling us to understand God’s Word. Just as Jesus did not bypass the faculties of his disciples, so the Holy Spirit does not bypass the minds of his people. He teaches them as they think about his Word.

What would be one of the main matters that Jesus would want to instruct his people about? We get an answer to that question in verse 26 where Jesus tells us that the world is not worth focussing on. What is the world? Clearly it is an enemy to discipleship and I would suggest that the world means anything in this life that hinders following Jesus. This means that disciples are being called continually to make right choices in order to ensure that the world does not take them off the road to heaven.

Similarly, the way that followers would discuss together the instructions of their teacher illustrates for us the necessity of genuine disciples speaking to another about the teachings of Jesus. His teachings are now found in the Bible. This is what Christian fellowship is all about. Fellowship is not speaking about any triviality or weird experience we imagine we have had.

So we can see that discipleship is spiritual, straightforward and social. In the relationship Jesus is central whether it involves the other divine persons in the Trinity or other disciples. Moreover, such discipleship is a journey from somewhere (unconverted), with some others (Jesus and his people), to a place (heaven).

The conclusion of discipleship

Jesus describes the conclusion of discipleship in verse 27: ‘For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.’ There is coming a spectacular occasion marked by glory during which the disciples of Jesus will be rewarded for their actions.

The Saviour stresses that the recompense is connected to what the person has done. I suppose we could say that the recompense is connected to how often the individual lived out the fact that he was carrying the cross that identified him as belonging to Jesus and how dedicated he was to following close to Jesus and interacting with him and his disciples.

The reality of this future judgement tells us about the importance of discipleship. Its importance is obvious in that the only ones who will get a reward are faithful disciples. When the moment comes to receive from Jesus, we will not regret anything difficult that we encountered on our journey. In fact, we will see that the most difficult moments have contributed the most to the reward, not because they were done perfectly but because they were done faithfully.

Some of the occasions that will get a reward are surprising. In Luke 14:12-14, Jesus mentions one: ‘When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbours, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.’

We can see from that quotation that the rewards are connected to sharing. Here is another quotation that states this: ‘The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward’ (Matt. 10:41-42).

Rewards are also connected to suffering for the cause of Christ, which fits in with carrying the cross: ‘Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets’ (Luke 6:22-24).

We can also say that the reward is connected to stickability. The apostle John wrote in 2 John 8: ‘Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward.’ Their danger was listening to false teachers; we may face that potential danger or we may face others. But when we do face them, remember the reward.

The basic requirement for a reward is serving, which is what a disciple does: ‘Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ’ (Col. 3:23-24).

What is the reward? There will be degrees of it, but it will be the same reward in essence. The reward will be to share the glory of Jesus. It will be wonderful to hear Jesus say, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master’ (Matt. 25:21).