The Walk of Dying

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor who stood against Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party.  Bonhoeffer was hung as a martyr for his Christian faith in a Nazi concentration camp in 1945 at the age of 39 for participating in a resistance against Hitler in support of the Jews.  He is most well-known for writing a book called “The Cost of Discipleship” in which he penned the famous statement, “when Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”  This statement summarized Bonhoeffer’s belief that being a follower of Christ is not cheap but costly and allows us to, “live in the world without being of it” and to be “truly free to live our lives in this world”!  What did Dietrich Bonhoeffer believe that gave him the courage to stand up to Hitler in the face of death?

READ:  Luke 9:21-25

Jesus Christ taught and lived out what Dietrich Bonhoeffer came to believe and live out himself, that living life in the same way as Jesus did requires LOSING our LIVES!  Jesus said that He, “must suffer . . . and be killed”.  Jesus selflessly chose physical death for the benefit of sinful humanity.  In Philippians 3:10 Paul expresses his desire to know Christ by “becoming like Him in His death” (cf 2 Cor. 4:10).  Sounds a little morbid!  Who wants to be like someone who is known for how they died?  Paul did, and we should too!  It’s a profound paradox for those who want to live in the same way Jesus lived that by losing our lives we truly find life!  How do we lose our lives for the sake of Jesus Christ?

We lose our lives by FORBIDDING ourselves the LIFE we want (Lk. 9:23) – Forbidding ourselves things we want is hard to do.  Our golden retriever Daisy had zero ability to forbid herself something that she wanted.  She would spend 5 straight days digging a hole underneath a fence just so she could get to a ball.  Are there things in life that we react the same way towards?  We spend our lifetimes pursuing what we want when we should “deny (ourselves)” and live for God.  Our lives are not our own to do with what we want, we are the possession of God and therefore we need to use our lives for His purpose and glory (Rom. 14:7-8; 1 Cor. 6:19b-20a)!

We lose our lives by daily WRITING another page of our OBITUARY (Lk. 9:23) – An autobiography is an account of a person's life written or composed by themselves.  If you were to write an autobiography would choose the genre of an obituary?  Probably not.  The apostle Paul wrote his own obituary in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”  Like Paul, by “taking up (our) cross”, we are to put ourselves to death in order that we may walk a new life in Christ (Rom. 6:3-7, 11)!  Daily we are to die to the desire to write the story of our lives, but instead let God author every chapter of our life.

We lose our lives by FOLLOWING Jesus Christ (Lk. 9:23) - Do you remember getting to be the line leader in elementary school?  How proud to be the ONE that marched everyone down the hall to recess or to the lunch room.  Is that not the position that we are encouraged to achieve in life?  Jesus does not call us to be at the front of the line, rather to place ourselves last and least among others and take up the humble position of following.  Jesus’ call to be a disciple is an invitation to leave the things of the world behind and follow Him (Mt. 4:18-22)!

CONCLUSION
2 Timothy 2:11 says, “If we have died with Him, we will also live with Him”.  In order to live for God, we must be willing to die for Him.  Jim Elliott was one of five missionaries killed at the age of 29 in 1956 while participating in Operation Auca, an attempt to share the gospel with the Huaorani people of Ecuador in South America.  Jim expressed his willingness to lose his life eleven years before he died when he wrote in a personal journal, “he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose”.  Jim understood something that we need to understand as we live in this world.  There is nothing in this world that is worth holding onto, even our very lives, compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing and following Jesus Christ!  Have you lost your life for the sake of Christ, or are you still trying to save it?

The Walk of Humility

Attitude is everything!  Charles Swindoll wrote, “the longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.  Attitude is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill.  The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past . . . we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude... I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.  And so it is with (us) . . . we are in charge of our attitudes.”

Our attitude is something we are constantly in control of in spite of our circumstances.  Our attitude is not something that someone else can manipulate or decide for us.  Our attitude determines how we respond to difficulty and hardship.  Our attitude dramatically impacts and influences others.  Our attitude drives our decisions and shapes our priorities.  What attitude did Jesus Christ possess that we are to possess as well?

READ: Philippians 2:1-11

Living life in the same way as Jesus did requires an ATTITUDE of HUMILITY!  MIND (ATTITUDE) = Chosen WAY of THINKING.  The NIV translates Philippians 2:5, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.”  Jesus Christ’s attitude of humility was at the core of what made Him who He was.  Jesus’ attitude of humility was the source of His love and compassion.  Jesus’ attitude of humility was the source of His willingness to serve and sacrifice.  Without humility, Jesus would have held on to His “equality with God”, He would have never taken the “form of a servant”, He would have never been “born in the likeness of man”, and definitely would have never been obedient to “death on a cross”.  Jesus’ attitude of humility is the same attitude that we are to live our lives with!  What does it mean to have an attitude of humility like Christ?

Humility is an attitude willing to LET GO of a HIGH position (Phil. 2:6-7) – When we possess something valuable it is natural for us to act like a child in order to keep possession of it by holding onto it tightly, turning our backs, and selfishly screaming “MINE”.  The last thing we would do with something valuable to us is willingly open our hands and let it go.  In contrast, Jesus, although He possessed the valuable status of God, released His rightful “grasp” and “emptied” Himself of His high position and privilege.  Humility is a willingness to let go of any characteristic about ourselves that we might claim superiority over another person including appearance, intelligence, skill, or position.  By choosing to let go of our superiority we open a door to significantly impact others that is impossible to open in any other way.

Humility is an attitude willing to TAKE HOLD of a LOW position (Phil. 2:7-8) – In my youth group we had what was called the “Christian pencil”.  The “Christian pencil” was the pencil that no one wanted because it had no eraser, it was short and stubby, and had teeth marks all over it.  Only a super Christian was willing to take hold of that disgusting pencil.  In contrast, Jesus humbly chose to “take” the lowly position of a human being.  The word humble means, “to lower, to lay flat, to make small/insignificant, to place under.”  Humility is placing ourselves in a position that is lower, under, and below all others.  If there is one attitude that we must take hold of tightly and never let go it is the willingness to allow others in our lives to be more significant and important than us.

Humility is an attitude which is willing to DIE to SELF for the sake of others (Phil. 2:8) – It’s one thing to die of natural causes, it’s another thing to choose to die on purpose in place of someone else so that they can live.  Jesus humbly lowered Himself to the lowest place of “death on a cross”.  Jesus’ ultimate expression of humility was His willingness to be punished and die as a sinner in our place.  In a million small ways every day and, at times, in big ways, we must choose to die to our selfish desires by “count(ing) others more significant than ourselves” and by “look(ing) to the interests of others”.  Dying to self is painful, but it’s worth the sacrifice knowing that someone else’s life is better as a result.

CONCLUSION
What happens when we live with an attitude of humility?  Jesus said in Luke 14:11, “everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted”.  Just as “God highly exalted (Jesus)” for His humility, we must not exalt ourselves, but rather humble ourselves and allow God to be the one to exalt us higher (Phil. 2:9)!  Do you have an attitude of pride that exalts yourself higher or an attitude of humility that places yourself lower?

The Walk of Love

Anybody like grapes?  A cluster of grapes goes through quite a process for us to be able to enjoy.  Many of us get our grapes from Wal-Mart.  Wal-Mart gets its grapes from a company called Sun World which has vineyards in California.  After approximately 150-180 days of development, at just the right time, when these grapes were ripe, they are cut off, put on a truck, and delivered to Wal-Mart where we can purchase and enjoy them.

For you and me to enjoy the fruit of salvation, Jesus Christ went through quite a process. He left heaven, He was born as a baby, He lived 33 years of a sinless life, He died on the cross, He was buried, and He rose again three days later.  A week before Jesus death, burial, and resurrection He prayed to His Father in John 12:27, “for this purpose I have come to this hour”.  The night of Jesus’ betrayal and arrest John 13:1 says, “Jesus knew that His hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father”.  Just before Jesus’ crucifixion His life was ripe, His “purpose” and His “hour” had come.  Why?  So that all those who would believe in Him might enjoy the sweet “fruit” of salvation, the forgiveness of sin.

READ: John 15:1-17

Living life in the same way as Jesus did requires producing the sacrificial FRUIT of LOVE!  Jesus lived His life to display God’s love to a sinful world.  Jesus produced the greatest fruit of love when He died on the cross in order that we might enjoy the fruit of salvation. Since the disciples didn’t get it from the life He lived, He told them in John 15:12-13, “this is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down His life for His friends”.  Sacrificial love is the fruit that Jesus wants His disciples to display to others.  How are we able to exhibit the sacrificial fruit of love?

Our ability to sacrificially love others is the natural result of being loved BY GOD (John 15:9-10) – A vital part of what it means to abide in Christ, and producing sacrificial love, is knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt how immeasurably much God loves us.  Jesus ability love was the result of the fact that “the Father loved (Him)” and “abide(d) in His love”.   Paul prays in Ephesians 3:17-19 that, “(we), being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses all knowledge”.  Christ’s love for us is far beyond what our minds can comprehend.  Christ overwhelmed us with love on the cross.  Only when we have believed in Christ’s love for us on the cross will we be able to sacrificially love others.  1 John 4:19 says, “we love, because He first loved us”.  For us to bear the fruit of sacrificial love that others can enjoy we must first accept and experience God’s sacrificial love for us.

Our ability to sacrificially love others should be EVER-INCREASING (John 15:2-8) – Jesus subtly communicates with this metaphor of vine and branches that His disciples are capable of producing more and more and more fruit.  In verse 2 in distinguishing two completely different branches, He says there are branches who by nature of their unity with Christ “bear fruit”.  In verse 2 He says there is a process through which a branch can go in order to bear “more fruit”.  In verses 5 and 8 He says there is a branch that bears “much fruit”.  This multiplied production of fruit happens as God the Father, the vinedresser, prunes branches abiding in the vine.  Pruning is a process of cutting away excess and unnecessary growth in order to produce a higher quality and greater quantity of fruit.  In order to allow space for a higher quality and greater quantity of sacrificial love in our lives, God removes things that are get in the way or prevent increased growth from happening.  We should not be surprised if this is a hard and even painful process.  And yet, it is a process we should invite and welcome in our lives (2 Thes. 1:3).

CONCLUSION
Jesus said in John 3:16, “God so loved that world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life”.  Jesus lived His life so that the world would taste and experience the fruit of salvation.  He may no longer be physically present on the earth, but He is present in a way even greater than when He was on the earth.  Jesus miraculously multiplies Himself through us.  Jesus is the true vine, He produced the fruit of sacrificial love on the cross, we are the branches, and now we must bearing the fruit of sacrificial love as well!  Are others enjoying the fruit of sacrificial love that is being produced in your life?

The Walk of Servanthood - Part 2

“Dirty Jobs” is a TV series on the Discovery Channel in which host Mike Rowe does a real life strange, nasty, and messy job alongside regular employees.  Mike joins these employees and works alongside of them to complete whatever disgusting, degrading, or dangerous job they do.  Every job is even more difficult than expected and Mike often expresses admiration and respect for the workers' willingness to do a job that most of us would avoid.  According to Mike, one of the worst dirty jobs ever was sewer inspector where he trudged through human waste to repair sewer lines. Most of us avoid these types of jobs, but Jesus did one specific job much like this (not as a gimmick for a TV show), to show an important way in which we are to live our lives . . .

READ: John 13:1-17

Living life in the same way as Jesus did requires SERVING others in MENIAL ways!  MENIAL = A LOWLY or DEGRADING job.  Menial jobs are boring, dirty, unpleasant, unglamorous, unrecognized, unappreciated, and unrewarded.  Who wants to sign up to do that job?  Jesus did!  Jesus did the menial job of washing the disciples’ feet in order to help them understand just how much He was willing to sacrifice for them (John 13:7, 12).  If Jesus was willing to do the menial job of washing feet, we need to be willing to do jobs that we are way overqualified for as well!  Why is serving others in menial ways so important?  

Serving others in a menial way is a TOP-NOTCH expression of LOVE (Jn. 13:1) – We might be willing to love others through some pretty difficult things, but at some point, our love has its limits.  One of the true tests of the extent of our love for someone is if . . . we are willing to clean up the mess after they throw up!  Cleaning up vomit for someone else is a true expression of love.  Jesus “loved (His own) to the end”.  By washing the disciples’ feet, Jesus displayed that there was NO LIMIT to the love He had for His disciples.  Jesus was willing to do anything and everything for those He loved including dying on the cross. If we are going to truly love others, there must be no limits to the love that we exhibit toward others.  We must be willing to lay down our lives for others in the most lowly and degrading ways so that there is no doubt in their minds that we love them.

Serving others in a menial way is a TANGIBLE expression of LOWLINESS (Jn. 13:2-5) – When I graduated from Lincoln Christian Seminary in 2007 I was given a towel to remind me that my primary job in life is to lower myself and serve others.  Foot washing was a lowly job of hospitality done by servants when a visitor entered a home after walking the dusty, dirty streets.  Jesus, lowering Himself to the menial job of a servant, “poured water in to a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around Him”.  Although Jesus was above the disciples as their “Teacher” and “Lord”, He did the menial of washing feet in order to show them how lowly and humble He was willing be in order to serve others. Menial jobs show others that our lives are not meant to be used to serve ourselves but to serve others.

Serving others in a menial way is a TRUE expression of LEADERSHIP (Jn. 13:12-17) – Leadership today is thought of as being out front, taking charge, and exerting control over those under us. Jesus redefines leadership saying, “if I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.  For I have given you an example, that you also should do just I have done to you”.  Jesus wanted to multiply His method of servant leadership among the disciples, but rather than just tell them what they should do He showed them with His own life as an example.  If we want to lead others we must do it by example and be willing do whatever job we might expect or demand someone “beneath” us to do.

CONCLUSION
Jesus washing the disciples’ feet was symbolic of the cleansing that He would provide by dying on the cross.  1 John 1:7 says that, “the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin”.  Jesus did the menial job of dying on the cross so that we could be washed clean of our sin.  Jesus willingly did this painful, shameful, and unjust job so that we would never have to do it!  Have your sins been washed away by putting faith in Jesus Christ?