[The following devotional is a part of our 2015 Easter Season Devotional Book “Passion Road.”  We will be posting a devotional each day on this blog between February 18 – April 5, 2014.]

 

The Cost of Discipleship by Jonathan Holmes

Read: Luke 14:25-33

Have you ever found yourself in the middle of a large task like mowing the yard or driving somewhere and stopped to consider, “Is this really worth it?” You ask this question because you see how much time you have invested in the task and you begin to weigh the alternatives. “Couldn’t I just pay someone to mow my yard?” “Why didn’t we fly here?” When we count the costs we begin to ponder if we made the right decision.

If you have never found yourself asking this question about following Jesus, then you will. Whenever we face obstacles, are tempted by sin, or face tragedy we look at our relationship with Jesus and think to ourselves, “Is this really worth it?” In Luke 14 Jesus challenges the crowd gathered around Him to “count the cost” of being His disciple, because it is costly. Jesus describes the cost of being His disciple by saying:

A disciple loves Jesus > everything else. (v. 26) Jesus doesn’t mean to literally HATE everyone—He’s overstating His point like we do when we say, “I’m so hungry I’m gonna DIE.” A disciple’s loyalty and love falls to Jesus first and their love for everything else is incomparable.

A disciple carries his cross. (v. 27) The Roman Empire would force the criminal to carry his cross at least part of the way to the execution site. Carrying his cross through the city was intended to be an admission that the emperor was correct in their sentencing him to death. A disciple must carry their cross and follow Him as a public display that Jesus is their Lord and they would follow Him even to death.

After sharing these two costs of discipleship Jesus shares two parables to help the crowd realize the importance of counting these costs before they claim to be His followers. The parables both hit on the importance of counting the costs while the tower teaches us that we must not be like the foolish builder who is not able to pay the full cost. The warring king teaches us that we must be able to sacrifice a desired victory all while counting the cost.

Discipleship is costly. It is costly because it costs a man his life. Discipleship is filled with grace because it gives us the only true life. That is why Jesus so desperately wants us to count the costs and not end up like the tower builder or warring king unable to finish well. Jesus’ followers understand the cost of disciple and must be willing to pay the full price.

Questions:

• Have you every stopped and considered the costs of following Jesus?
• What lessons can you learn from the tower builder and warring king?

Prayers:

• Thank God for the opportunity to lay down your life to find true life in Him. (Luke 9:23-24)
• Ask God to show you areas in your life in which you are not ready to pay the full price of discipleship.

[The following devotional is a part of our 2015 Easter Season Devotional Book “Passion Road.”  We will be posting a devotional each day on this blog between February 18 – April 5, 2014.]

 

Which Seat are You In? by Mark Robinson

Read:  Luke 15:1-32

I love OU Football.  Several Saturdays each year, I have the opportunity to go to the “temple” of OU football (Gaylord Family Memorial Stadium) to see the Sooners play.

Though every seat in Memorial Stadium is a good one, there are nuances that allow you to have a different vantage point depending on where you sit.  If you are down low on the west side, you are close to the action, but you probably have to stand the entire game.  If you are in the upper deck on the east side, you have a chair back, but it takes an hour and a half to climb the ADA compliant switchbacks to make your way to the top.

Different seats offer different vantage points. This is a principle that is not just true in a stadium, but also true in life.  Depending on what seat you are in, stories and experiences impact you differently.  Of course, Jesus knew this.  That is why when He tells His parables, many times they have different meanings for different people in His listening audience.  This was certainly true in Luke 15 when Jesus tells His famous parables of the lost sheep, shekel, and son.

In the first couple of sentences of Luke 15, Luke lets us know that Jesus was talking to the “tax collectors and sinners,” but also to the “Pharisees and scribes.”  To be sure, these were two very different “seats” from which to hear the parables Jesus taught.

The “tax collectors and sinners” were the people everyone thought had screwed up.  They were the ones rejected and despised by the religious elite.  Jesus tells these parables to them to let them know that God (in Christ) is seeking them out.  He is leaving the 99 to hunt them down.  He is searching the house of Israel for them because they are valuable to Him.  This truth would have been an incredible comfort to the sinner!

The “Pharisee and scribe” were the religious elite, leaders in the synagogue.  They were the ones who knew their Bible well.  But they were also the ones who had become self-righteous and self-reliant, thus blinding them to their own sin.  To this group of people, Jesus tells the parable reminding them that they should be rejoicing, not grumbling, at Christ’s outreach to the broken and bruised.  Also, Jesus tells the parable to remind them that their Heavenly Father is concerned for them as well . . . evidenced by the fact that the prodigal’s father is outside the house, talking with the older son (older son = Pharisees), inviting them to come into the party.

Questions:

• Which “seat” can you most associate with in these parables (tax collectors or Pharisees)?
• What do these parables teach you about God’s thoughts for you?

Prayer:

• Pray and thank God for His pursuit of a relationship with you.

As far as Christian holidays go, Christmas and Easter are the “big 2.”  In the church calendar, much is made about these two special days.  At Christmas, we celebrate Jesus’s birth.  At Easter, we celebrate Jesus’s death and resurrection.  Special worship services, family meals, and even presents are exchanged around each holiday.

Though these two holidays are both very important, have you ever found that (unlike Christmas) Easter kind of sneaks up on you every year?  I certainly have felt that way.  I believe Easter surprises us for a variety of reasons:

• Unlike Christmas, Easter moves each year.  Sometimes it is in March, other times April.
• Unlike Christmas, the Easter season is much less celebrated by our culture.
• Unlike Christmas, there are not many “Easter Albums” of songs sung by your favorite country or rock recording artist.

All that said, we don’t have to let our calendars, culture, or Spotify playlist tell us when we can and cannot celebrate what God has done for us in Jesus Christ.

Therefore, this Easter season, we want to focus on the person of Jesus Christ.  Over a period of 6+ weeks leading up to Easter Sunday (April 5, 2015), we have prepared a variety of devotionals to focus our hearts on Jesus.  Each week contains six devotionals (one for every day except Sunday).  We have entitled these devotionals (and the sermon series which will be running over this same span at Wildwood Community Church) – “Passion Road:  Meeting Jesus on the Way to the Cross.”  These devotionals will walk through five different sections:

• Parables of Jesus (February 17-21): We will kick off our study by looking at a number of parables that Jesus taught during His earthly ministry.  These parables help us to understand God’s heart and the kind of things Jesus talked about while on the earth.
• Power of Jesus (February 23-28):  On these days, we will look at some of Jesus’ s miracles to prepare our hearts in celebration of the world’s greatest miracle, the resurrection.  Miracles are intended to be a redirection of man’s attention: away from the mundane events of everyday life and toward the mighty acts of God.  The power of Jesus is seen clearly through His miraculous works.
• Purpose of Jesus (March 2 -7):  On these days, we will look at several passages in the four Gospels that reveal the purpose of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection.
• Perspective on Jesus (March 9-21):  On these days, we will look throughout the New Testament Epistles to see the many perspectives of what Jesus accomplished through His life and death.
• Passion of Jesus (March 23 – April 4):  On these days, we will zero in on the last week of Jesus’s life.  We will focus on the Gospel of John and will walk our way from John 12-20 to see the death and resurrection of Jesus in full detail.

We hope and pray that this guide helps prepare your heart for worship this Easter season.

— Mark Robinson and Jonathan Holmes

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If you are looking for a devotional book to use for yourself (or your family) this Easter season, check this out.  The price is good (FREE) and you can access this devotional in 6 ways:

• Download a pdf copy of the devotional guide here:   Passion Road Devo.
• Download the ebook copy of the Passion Road Devotional – for Kindle/iPad/iPhone
• Check back to this blog daily between February 18 and April 5 to view the daily devotional.
• If you are a member of Wildwood, each day’s devotional will be accessible via Wildwood’s “City” online network.
• Print copies are available at Wildwood on Sundays while supplies last.
• Access each day’s devotional via the Wildwood IOS app (if you have an iPad or iPhone).  The devotionals will be published to this app beginning February 18.  You can download the app via the iTunes Store here.

Each day’s devotional should take about 10-15 minutes to compete, and includes a Scripture passage, a devotional thought, questions for discussion, and prayer prompts.

May this devotional help you worship this Easter Season!