On the 17th of March, 2010, a SEAL team 6 squadron of special operators were attempting to take out an enemy that was barricaded inside a compound in Afghanistan. Among the special operators involved in the mission was Adam Brown, a man that had overcome tremendous obstacles in his life such as drug addiction as the result of accepting Jesus as his Savior. In the years following his conversion, he had continued an uphill battle against all sorts of difficulties and physical impairments in order to eventually be accepted as a member of one of the most elite fighting forces in the world.  And he did so while maintaining his testimony as one who had been redeemed by the power of Christ to save.  On this particular night, the U.S. Forces mission was in grave danger of being compromised.  They were engaging the enemy in a fire fight, and a number of their team had become pinned down by very heavy fire from the enemy compound. In an effort to protect his men, Adam Brown left the safety of his position and  charged the enemy to gain a better vantage point, drawing fire away from his pinned down comrades and placing himself in the direct line of fire. His selfless action relieved the attack on his men, but unfortunately the action resulted in Adam being struck by enemy fire. One other member of  his team was  also wounded, but Adam’s heroic action saved the rest of his team.   However, tragically, Adam Brown paid the ultimate sacrifice as the result of his wounds.  He left behind a wife and two young children.  There is a book written about Adam called Fearless, that will be coming out in the near future as a movie.  The producers say that they will not diminish the Christian testimony that Adam had.  I hope that it will be a way to expand Adam’s impact for the Lord to millions of people as the Lord continues to use his life as a witness for the gospel.

We rightly hold up such men as Adam Brown as the finest examples of heroism.  Jesus Himself said that “greater love has no man than this, than a man lays down his life for his friends.”  We often talk about our Christianity in terms of God loving us, and our love for God.  But I wonder how far are we willing to take that kind of love?  Christ loved us so much that He was willing to become the ultimate sacrifice for us.  But the question I put to you today is are you willing to lay down your life because of your love for Christ?

So I have entitled today’s message as The Ultimate Sacrifice.  And this message should be viewed in the context of the passage immediately before in which the rich young ruler was unwilling to sacrifice his riches and possessions which defined his life in order to follow Christ and enter into eternal life.  And in response to that tragic response to the gospel, in  vs. 28  Peter says, “Behold, we have left everything and followed You.” And Matthew records that Peter adds to that statement, “what then shall there be for us?”

Jesus answers in vs. 29 that “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times as much at this time and in the age to come, eternal life.”  In other words, there will be an eternal reward for those that are willing to make earthly sacrifices for the sake of the kingdom of God.

Now in that context of sacrifice, Jesus takes the 12 disciples apart from the crowd and tells them that He is going to give Himself as the ultimate sacrifice.  He says in vs. 31, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things which are written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished.  For He will be handed over to the Gentiles, and will be mocked and mistreated and spit upon,  and after they have scourged Him, they will kill Him; and the third day He will rise again.”

But the disciples don’t understand what He is talking about.  Vs. 34 “But the disciples understood none of these things, and the meaning of this statement was hidden from them, and they did not comprehend the things that were said.”  Luke says the same thing three different ways I think to emphasize the utter lack of comprehension concerning the purpose and plan of the Messiah.  He says they couldn’t understand it, they couldn’t see it, and they couldn’t comprehend it.  In other words, they didn’t have a clue what He was talking about.

Now the problem wasn’t that Jesus wasn’t making Himself clear, the problem was that what Jesus was saying didn’t mesh with their theology.  They had their Messianic theology all worked out.  All Jews knew what the rabbis taught concerning the coming of the Messiah.  Their theology taught that when the Messiah comes, He would be a king in the line of David, and He would take back the throne of Israel.  He was going to conquer all the enemies of Israel.  He would bring prosperity and blessing back to the Jews.  They believed that Israel would then take it’s place as the reigning nation of the world and all the other nations would come bow down to them.

The thing is, they had so many scriptures that seemed to back up that theology that I cannot even begin to show them to you this morning.  We don’t have time.  But practically half of the Psalms speak of this King who will crush all their enemies and rule over the world and bring peace to Israel.  I’ll just give you an example from Isaiah and you can follow this on your own if you are so inclined. Isaiah 9:6-7 “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. 7 There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.”

So the disciples have a big problem with what Jesus is saying.  That’s why Luke says it three different ways that they couldn’t understand it.  Their theology didn’t allow for a suffering Savior.  They believed in a conquering king.  And so Jesus announcing that He was going to be arrested and killed must mean that He is not really the Messiah.  And that is a real problem for them, because they have left their homes, their families and their jobs in order to follow Him, in hope that when He comes into His kingdom, they will sit on thrones on his right hand and left hand and judge the nations with Him.  They think that they have too much invested in this guy to see Him get killed off.

The problem is that they don’t include all the scriptural prophecies in their theology, because they have a theology that they particularly like and they don’t fit the template.  They like their prosperity and blessing theology just fine.  But no one likes the suffering and dying theology.  So all the scriptures that talked about suffering and dying they somehow had spiritualized or just out right ignored for the sake of their theology.

Folks, I hope you are getting the picture here.  I hope you are catching the analogy.  Because the modern church today has it’s own pet theology as well.  And the God of the Bible doesn’t really always mesh with our theology.  The Christian experience that we like to promote and believe in is often at odds with the Christian experience that is taught in the Bible.  I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news.  But I’m just telling you what the Bible says.  I’m telling you what Jesus says.  And I’m afraid that the truth of the gospel has run afoul of a lot of so called evangelical Christian’s theology.  So the dilemma that a lot of people have is do we continue to worship our pet view of God, the God that we think is going to work everything out for us so that we never have to get sick, we never have to suffer, we never lose our possessions, we never go bankrupt, we never get persecuted… or do we pick up our cross and follow Jesus Christ to the cross?

Do I need to remind you of the words of Jesus in Luke 9:23-24  “And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. 24 “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.”

Now Jesus references that the prophets spoke of the sufferings that were prescribed for Him.  And I just want to share a couple of them with you, just so you know what He was talking about.  I told you while ago that many references are found in the Psalms that speak of the Messiah being a conquering King.  But we have to be careful not to cherry pick our way through the scriptures, claiming the ones we like and discarding the ones we don’t.  The Jews should have considered for instance Psalm 22 which speaks of the sufferings of Christ. Psalm  22:1-2 “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning.  O my God, I cry by day, but You do not answer; And by night, but I have no rest.”  It goes on to say in vs. 14 “I am poured out like water, And all my bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; It is melted within me.  My strength is dried up like a potsherd, And my tongue cleaves to my jaws; And You lay me in the dust of death. For dogs have surrounded me; A band of evildoers has encompassed me; They pierced my hands and my feet.  I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me;  They divide my garments among them, And for my clothing they cast lots.”  All of that would be fulfilled at the cross.

Or perhaps they should have not only considered Isaiah 9, but also Isaiah 53; 3, “He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.”

Now why was Jesus taking them aside to tell them that He must suffer and die?  I believe it was because Jesus was on His way to the cross.  He was deliberately, methodically going according to the plan predetermined in eternity past, that He would offer Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the world.  He would be the substitute for those that would trust in Him for the forgiveness of their sins.  This was the plan of God from eternity past.   On the day of Pentecost after Jesus’ resurrection, Peter would make that exact point in his message.  In Acts 2:23 he says,  “this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.”

Perhaps what the disciples fail to realize is that the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ is coming to a close.  He is on His way to Jerusalem.  It is the Passover season and people are joining them from the various regions and there is this huge entourage of the multitude that will sweep into Jerusalem with Jesus riding on a donkey’s colt and they will call out “Hosanna, to the Son of David; BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Hosanna in the highest!”  It’s going to seem like to the disciples that Jesus is on His way to receiving the kingdom, He is about to be coronated, and yet within a few days that very crowd that called out “Hosanna!” will cry out, “away with Him, crucify Him!”

They do not realize that He is about to hand over the dispensation of His kingdom, the stewardship of His kingdom to them.  That He will be crucified and buried, and in three days He will rise from the grave and a few weeks from then He will ascend to His Father in Heaven.  They don’t understand that He will entrust the kingdom to them, and that they will have to suffer the same hardships that He suffered.  As the apostle Paul said in Phil. 3:10 “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.”

Jesus knew that they would indeed join with Him in the fellowship of His sufferings.  Peter would be hanged upside down on a cross.  James would die at Passover as well just 11 years later than Jesus.  Andrew would be crucified.  Matthew was killed by the sword.  James the son of Alpheus was thrown from the temple and then clubbed until he died. Thomas was killed with a spear.  Matthias, who took the place of Judas was beheaded as was the apostle Paul.

I’m sure that some of you sitting here today are thinking, yeah, but that was the apostles.  They were specially picked out by Christ for that role and they will get special recognition in heaven.  But that is not for us.  They did that so that we could live the victorious life of blessing and health and wealth. I’m afraid that this false thinking has overtaken even the elect.  I’m afraid that we have forgotten that we are all called to be disciples.  And that we are called in the great commission to make disciples.  I’m afraid that we are short selling Christianity today as a pie in the sky and eat it here too type of religion that requires no sacrifice on our part, no suffering. We are told it’s all supposed to be joy and peace here on earth.

I would just like to briefly remind you of what Jesus had to say about discipleship.  He said in Matt. 10:24 “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master.”  In Matt. 10:34-38  “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 “For I came to SET A MAN AGAINST HIS FATHER, AND A DAUGHTER AGAINST HER MOTHER, AND A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW AGAINST HER MOTHER-IN-LAW; 36 and A MAN’S ENEMIES WILL BE THE MEMBERS OF HIS HOUSEHOLD. 37 “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. 38 “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.”

He taught His disciples in Luke 14 that must count the cost if they were to enter the kingdom of God.  He said in Luke 14:33 “So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.”  He said in Matt. 10:22 “You will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved.”

Listen, I am afraid that we have short sold the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We have told everyone that it doesn’t cost us anything to come to Christ when Jesus Himself says that it will cost you your life.  It will cost you your family.  It may cost you your home.  It may cost you your possessions, your riches.  I will guarantee you one thing it will cost;  it will cost you your idols.  Whatever it is that you are holding onto.  Whatever it is that you are not willing to renounce for the sake of the kingdom.

But you say, wait a minute!  What I am holding onto isn’t a sin.  It’s not something that the Bible says is a sin.  Well, there is no law against being rich is there?  Yet, because the rich young ruler was not willing to obey Christ and sell everything and follow Him, he revealed it was an idol.  He put his riches above following Christ.  And he went away sad because he knew that because he made his possessions his god that disqualified him from the kingdom of heaven.

Listen, Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice for us that we might make the ultimate sacrifice for Him.  What is that, you ask?  It is surrendering your soul, your life, your ambitions, everything surrendered to the authority, the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  That is what discipleship requires.  Everything.

Jesus makes it clear in Mark 8 that salvation requires complete trust and faith in Christ.  Not just a feeling, but acting on that faith by surrendering everything to follow Him.  Surrendering your will, your life, your all for Him.  That is the only way to receive eternal life and become a disciple.  And discipleship is a daily process of crucifixion, of crucifying your life for His life lived in you. [Mar 8:34-37 NASB] 34 And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. 35 “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36 “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? 37 “For what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”

Now let’s look in closing at a simple illustration that Luke gives of a person who exemplifies leaving everything to become a disciple and gain eternal life.  As Jesus is heading towards Jericho on His way to Jerusalem, there is a blind beggar sitting by the road.  Mark tells us this man was named Bartimeaus.  Undoubtedly he was a fixture in the community.  He probably had his spot by the gate that he sat at and begged everyday.  A blind man in that day had very little other resources, there would have been no welfare system.  He was helpless, living on the street and begging.  All he had would have been the cloak on his back that served as his coat and his bed.  And the blind man heard the commotion, he heard the crowd following Jesus and he asked someone what was going on.  And they told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by.  And this blind man hearing that springs into action.  He begins crying out to Jesus in a loud voice.

Now this blind beggar illustrates the exemplary components of what it means to become a disciple of Christ.   First of all, notice that this man is desperate.  He realizes that he has no other hope. There is no possible cure for his blindness.  Jesus is the only hope he has.  So he yells as loudly as he can.  And when they tell him to shut up he just screams all the louder.  He is absolutely desperate.  That marks the kind of desperation that is required for those seeking eternal life.

Secondly, he is a beggar.  That is a direct illustration of the principle Jesus presented in the Sermon on the Mount;  He said blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.  The word used there actually references the act of begging.  Of being helpless, hopeless, totally dependent on the kindness and mercy of someone else.  So desperation and recognizing that you are spiritually bankrupt, a beggar.

Thirdly, He says, “Jesus, Son of David.”  He has his theology right.  They told him it was Jesus of Nazareth, but he calls out “Jesus Son of David.”  It’s a Messianic title.  He calls Jesus his  King. And then He calls Him “Lord.”  Kyrios.  It is a word for deity, but it also means Master, Sovereign, Possessor of All Things.   This guy knows that Jesus is the Son of God and is willing to surrender everything to Him.

Fourthly, he says, “have mercy on me.”  This is an indication that he comes in repentance. He comes asking for mercy.  Mercy is not getting what you deserve.  He is asking Christ to be merciful.  To not give him what he deserves as a result of his sinfulness.

And fifthly, he recognizes that he was blind.  When Jesus asks him what do you want Me to do for you?  He answers, “I want to regain my sight.”  He knows he is blind.  Now that may seem obvious, but the fact is that most people are not saved because they don’t recognize that they are lost.  I said last week that though it was sad that the rich young ruler went away from Jesus without being saved, yet at least it was good that he went away having been confronted with the fact that he was a sinner.  Listen, you have to realize that you are a sinner before you can be saved.  You have to know that you are lost.  And when you come to that realization and in desperation come to Jesus as your only hope of salvation, and call on Him in faith and repentance than He will save you.  This man not only recognizes that he  is blind, but he recognizes that Jesus is the source of life.

So when Jesus hears him calling to Him He calls Bartimaeus to be brought to him.  And the blind beggar throws off his cloak, gets up from the gate where he has been sitting for years and comes to Jesus.

Jesus says to him in vs. 42, “Receive your sight; your faith has made you well.”  Actually, the translators don’t do this justice.  Literally it is your faith has saved you.  The Greek word is sozo, it means saved.  Listen, Jesus didn’t need people’s faith to heal them.  Jesus healed demoniacs, dead people (He brought them back to life).  He healed people with faith and without faith.  He says that your faith has saved you.  You may not need faith to be healed but you need faith to be saved, don’t you? Eph. 2:8  “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.” [Heb 11:6 NASB] 6 And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

And then look quickly at the conclusion of this man’s salvation. Luke 18:43 “Immediately he regained his sight and began following Him, glorifying God; and when all the people saw it, they gave praise to God.”  This blind beggar becomes saved, and then immediately he becomes a disciple.  He leaves everything and begins to follow Jesus. He has no interest in going back to the squalor of the beggar’s corner by the gate.  He doesn’t put back on the filthy rag that was his cloak.  He is given sight and wants nothing more to do with the kind of life that he had before.  He knows there is nothing of value there. He realizes that Jesus is the source of life and therefore follows Him completely, leaving behind everything that once defined his existence.  And what was done in his life by the transforming power of Jesus Christ causes people to glorify God.  That’s the power of discipleship.  That’s the result of following Christ.

Maybe you are asking, Well, Roy, what does it mean to follow Christ?  How is that done on a practical level? The purpose of our salvation is to make us like Christ.  To be molded in His image. [Rom 8:29 NASB] 29 “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.”  God gives us the Spirit of Christ to live in our redeemed earthly bodies, that we might have the power to become conformed to His image, that Christ may live in us.  It is dying to ourselves, so that the Holy Spirit may live through our bodies.

On a practical level that means being obedient to His word; walking in accordance with the Holy Spirit who leads us by the word of God.  What He tells us to do in His word we do. Eph 2:10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”  And Romans 12: reminds us that even as Christ laid down His life for the kingdom, so God requires of disciples that we also lay down our lives for the kingdom.  Rom 12:1  “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”  And that process can be painful as we join in the fellowship of His sufferings.  Paul goes on to say in 2Tim. 2:3-5  “Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier. 5 Also if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules.”

Listen, there is a prize, a reward for those that suffer with Christ, that leave everything to follow Him.  Jesus told the disciples back in our text in Luke 18, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times as much at this time and in the age to come, eternal life.”  I hope that you will seek the eternal reward that God has prepared for those that love him above all else.  I pray that your eyes may receive sight, so that having seen Jesus, you realize that He is the prize worth surrendering everything to follow.