Every Last Word

Mark: A lot of people talk about giving up everything for Jesus. Do they really mean everything? What do we get in return? Turn to the Gospel of Luke and listen as we discuss what we really might give up for Christ.

Welcome to Every Last Word, a radio and internet program with Dr. Philip Ryken, teaching the whole Bible to change your whole life. Today we're continuing our studies in the book of Luke, investigating what the Bible says about giving everything up for Christ. Phil, some in the church say that we should give up everything for Jesus, even our families. But family is often the most important thing to us. Would Jesus really ask us to give that up?

Dr. Philip Graham Ryken: Well, Mark, I think Jesus wants us to be ready to give up anything He calls us to give up for the sake of the kingdom of God. In a way, sometimes that includes family, particularly family members that really are not following God. They may not understand our values or our commitment or our call to missionary service, for example.

But as we think about that, I think it's important for us to realize that God has given us a family in the church, our brothers and sisters in Christ. They aren't just like a family; they are a family. They are our true and final family. I think in thinking through our relationship with our earthly families, it helps us when we recognize the fundamental reality of the new family of God in the church.

Mark: Well, when Jesus tells us to give up everything, does He give us anything in return?

Dr. Philip Graham Ryken: He gives us everything in return, Mark. When we give up really anything for the kingdom of God, we are given in return the blessings of that kingdom that is far greater than any earthly thing that we could ever possess.

As we'll see in today's passage, there are also many things that we are given even here on earth. We may give up family, like we were just talking about, but we realize we have a new and greater family in the church. We may give up possessions, and yet in giving those up, we realize great spiritual benefits.

No matter what we give up, there is always something deeply satisfying that God has for us in the kingdom of Jesus Christ. I hope our listeners will be encouraged in that today. No matter what we give up for Jesus, it will be worth it in the end, Mark.

Mark: Okay, thank you, Phil. Let's turn in our Bibles now to Luke chapter 18, verses 28 to 34, and listen to Dr. Ryken.

Dr. Philip Graham Ryken: Please turn in your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 18, where as we consider verses 28 through 34, we are confronted with the question: Is Jesus worth it? Is it really worth it to follow Jesus? I suppose at some point or other, most Christians have times in life when they question whether it really is worth it to follow Jesus. Times when they perhaps are tempted to doubt whether it is worth it.

It is such a hard thing to live the Christian life sometimes. So hard to follow some of the commands of Christ, perhaps, or to make some of the sacrifices that God may ask us to make for the sake of the kingdom of God. Is it worth it to follow Jesus when following Jesus might make you unpopular at school? Or when people who don't have the same morals that you have because you're a Christian seem to be getting ahead in business?

Is it worth it to follow Jesus when serving God may take you away from your family? Is it worth it when God calls you to give up a romantic relationship that you want, but He doesn't, because it's hindering your growth in godliness? Is it worth it to follow Jesus in any path of hard obedience or not? Well, this is a question people have been asking since the days of the first disciples.

Earlier in the Gospel of Luke, we were told that Peter and James and John had left everything. The Bible explicitly says everything to follow Jesus. Now, I think we find Peter raising the question as to whether it is worth it after all. Let me remind you of the context here. The disciples had overheard what Jesus had said to a man who was at least somewhat interested in finding out what he had to do to inherit eternal life.

The man was extremely rich, and Jesus discerned that it was his money, really, that was keeping him from the kingdom of God. So He told him to sell everything he had and give his money away to the poor. But the man wasn't ready to do that because, you see, for him, it wasn't worth it. He prized what he owned too much to give it all away, even for Jesus.

This got the disciples thinking about their own salvation. They were still learning what it meant to follow Jesus, and they had just heard Jesus say that this man would be saved if he would give everything he had to the poor. Then he would have true treasure in heaven. It sounded like a wise investment; giving on earth to gain in heaven.

The disciples hadn't exactly given their money to the poor, but they had given everything that they had away. They had left all of their possessions behind to follow Jesus, and so they were wondering now what kind of reward would Jesus have for them. Was it worth it to follow Jesus or not? Speaking certainly for himself, probably for the other disciples, Peter said, I think rather wistfully, "See, we have left our homes and followed you."

To me, he sounds almost like a schoolboy showing his teacher his homework and hoping that he'll get a sticker. This is what we have done, Jesus. We have left everything behind for you. Now, what do you have for us? Maybe Peter suddenly was concerned about his salvation. I mean, Jesus had been talking about getting camels through the eye of a needle. That's what it would take to get somebody into heaven. It sounded very difficult, humanly speaking, impossible.

Peter was wondering what Jesus would have for him, and he puts forward, I think, his obedience here as some kind of qualification for what Jesus might give him. Because you see, he and the other disciples had done something very similar to what Jesus said that this other man lacked. They had given up everything to follow Jesus.

David Gooding remarks in his commentary on this verse that what Peter said carries a rather unfortunate suggestion that somehow his sacrifice is wonderfully meritorious, particularly if you compare it to this other rich man who won't give up what he has to follow Jesus. Well, if that is what Peter thought, then he still needed to learn that salvation is by grace and not by works.

But it's still an honest question, isn't it? It's a question that most Christians ask at some point or other: is it worth it to follow Jesus? We know that's the question Peter was asking, because if we look at the same account in the Gospel of Matthew, it adds this little sentence. In Matthew chapter 19, you'll see Peter saying the same thing that he says here in Luke, "See, we have left everything and followed you," but then he adds these words: "What then will we have?"

What is there in it for us? That's the question he's asking. He's made the grand divestment, he's given everything else up to follow Jesus, and now he wants to know what he will get in return. Now, if you know anything about Jesus, you know He doesn't always answer people's questions, at least not directly. Particularly if the questions are asked from a wrong motivation or if He thinks that they really ought to be asking a different question entirely.

I would be almost inclined to expect that Jesus wouldn't answer this kind of question, that He would say, "Now, Peter, you should know better than that. You should know that you don't deserve anything in return. Leave all of that to me." Instead, Jesus gives them a wonderful promise of a vast reward. "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 more in this time, and in the age to come, eternal life."

Now, that is a sweeping promise of present and future blessing for anyone who leaves everything else behind to follow Jesus. Now, there is, I think, a general sense in which that is true of every Christian, that this is part of the call of every Christian. I'll say some more things in a moment about the specific call that God gives to some believers, but understand that a Christian really is someone who has decided to have Jesus instead of anything and everything else the world has to offer.

In some sense, these verses must be true of every believer. When we come to Christ, we come in repentance and faith. Repentance is turning away from sin, and faith is holding on to Jesus alone for our salvation and not anything else. I mean, that's a way of leaving everything else behind. It's the only way to come to Jesus at all.

The great Scottish theologian Thomas Boston made that kind of commitment when he renewed his personal covenant with God sometime near the end of his life and ministry. He had come to Christ many years before, but he came to a point late in life when he wanted to renew his covenant with God and say again the kind of commitment that he had made to God for the rest of his life and for eternity.

Boston went to the secret place in his home where he used to go for prayer, and he said, "Oh Lord, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, I confess from my heart that I am by nature a lost sinner. I am fully convinced that I am utterly unable to help myself." Have you made that kind of prayer? Have you come to God confessing your sins in that way? That's the way Boston began, and then he said this: "But as there is a covenant of grace, I now again take hold of that covenant for life and salvation to me. I believe on the name of Christ crucified, and I resign myself soul and body to him to be saved by his blood alone. I give up myself wholly unto him to serve him forever."

Then as Boston came to the end of his personal covenant, he called out to heaven to be his witness, and he cried out for the stones and for the timbers of his house to bear witness that he was making this commitment to God, and he said, "Thou art my God in the covenant, and I am one of thy people from henceforth and forever." Have you ever made that kind of commitment to Jesus Christ? You don't have to use those words to do it. You could do it much more simply than that.

You simply need to say that you want Jesus to be yours and that you want to be His forever, trusting in His blood shed for you on the cross. That's the prayer of every believer, and in that prayer, there is a leaving behind of your own life and giving it to Jesus so that you can belong to Him. I think that's part of what Jesus has in mind here when He talks about leaving other things behind for the sake of the kingdom of God.

But there's also a very specific sense in which this is true for some Christians who are called to give up specific things for the work of the gospel. For the sake of His kingdom, Jesus calls some of His servants to leave their homes and their families behind. In some parts of the world, you have to do that even to become a Christian at all.

Think of the Muslim parts of the world where coming for Christian baptism really will cause your family to renounce you, maybe even to persecute you, even perhaps to seek your death. But think as well of many other Christians who leave their homes and their families to do Christian work. To go overseas to serve as missionaries, perhaps. Because in order to fulfill that calling that God has put on their lives, they must give up some of the things that they love the most in the entire world in order to gain what Jesus has for them in their calling as Christians.

That brings us back to the question that Peter was asking: Is it worth it? Is it worth it to follow Jesus if that means, for example, going to a far country and being separated from your family? Is it worth being a missionary if you must take your children far away from their grandparents? What about all of the other sacrifices that Jesus might demand? Is it worth giving up your dream house to give sacrificially to kingdom work? Is it worth letting go of your plan for a husband or wife in order to pursue the plan that God has for your life and ministry?

Is it worth risking your reputation, what people will think of you, in order to be known as a follower of Christ in your school or in your workplace? Is it worth it to follow Jesus or not? We may sometimes have our doubts, but you know, we will never end up on the losing end of God's bargain. Because Jesus has made this amazing guarantee: anyone who leaves everything behind for the kingdom of God, or who leaves anything behind for the kingdom of God, will receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come, eternal life.

You'll notice how extensive that promise is. No one who gives something up for God will fail to receive His blessing. Everyone who follows Jesus will gain what He has to offer. You'll notice as well that there is here a kind of double blessing: it's a blessing for now and a blessing for later. Making sacrifices for the kingdom of God is like making a long-term investment that constantly pays out rich dividends along the way without ever diminishing the capital.

If you could find a financial investment like that, you'd do it today, wouldn't you? Something that's constantly giving you benefit now and reserving your full benefit for later. Jesus is saying that's what the gospel is like. That's what a relationship with me is like. It's very different, I think, from the way that many people think about Christianity. Many people think that Christianity at best is a good long-term investment that won't do all that much for you in the meantime.

Oh, maybe Jesus will save you when you die, they say. But right now, being a Christian will really just take all the fun out of life. Then they doubt whether Jesus really is worth it because it doesn't seem worth it in the short term. But here Jesus is assuring us that His kingdom is both the best short-term and the best long-term investment that anyone can ever make.

What does Jesus have for us in the short term? Well, He promises to give us more, much more than we give up for Him. Notice the language that's used here in verse 30: "many times more." This is what Jesus gives to those who give up home or family for the kingdom of God. I think you could almost take that promise to be true in a literal sense. Because you know, when you put your faith in Jesus Christ, you become part of the family of God.

God is your Father. Jesus Christ Himself is your husband, as it were. All of the children of God now become your brothers and sisters. So in the church, through faith in Christ, you have more family than you could ever want or need. Spiritual sons and daughters, and fathers and mothers, and brothers and sisters all over the world. This is our first and our everlasting family.

We should learn to treat it that way all through life. When the Bible talks about the church as the family of God, it's not saying it's analogous to the earthly families we have; it's saying that it is our family. It is its very identity. So when you first come to Christ and you're learning what it means to be a Christian, you have all of these brothers and sisters, your spiritual siblings, who can show you how.

When you're struggling in marriage, there are spiritual fathers and mothers who can teach you how to love. When you're alone in your singleness, needing companionship, you can be a brother or sister to a friend who can be a brother or sister to you. When you are without children, you are called to welcome the littlest followers of God the way that Jesus did. That's part of what it means to be in the family.

When you're far away from your earthly family, you can find a home away from home in the church. If you come to the end of your days and find that you have no living relatives, you have a spiritual family to mourn your passing and to bury you in the hope of the resurrection. You see, whatever home or family we may give up to follow Jesus, it can be more than made up in the church if only we will learn to regard it as the true family of God.

But I think when Jesus promises us many times more, He's not just talking about that. He's not just talking about spiritual relationships in the family of God. He is also talking about giving us Himself. This is what more than makes up for anything we think we may be missing in life by following Jesus. J.C. Ryle said in his commentary that "many times more" in this verse means that the believer shall find in Christ a full equivalent for anything that he is obliged to give up for Christ.

He shall find such peace and hope and joy and comfort and rest in communion with the Father and the Son that his losses shall be more than counterbalanced by his gains. The Lord Jesus Christ shall be more to him than property or relatives or friends. Now, that's the promise that Jesus is making. Has that become a reality in your own life? Which is more to you, property or Jesus? Relatives and friends or Jesus? Which thing is more important? Which thing do you prize the most?

Because even if we lose everything else in life or are called to give it up because God wants us to make a radical sacrifice for the gospel, even if we give something up, we still have Jesus. We always have Him, and what we have in Him can never be taken away. So when we don't have a home, we are to say to ourselves, on the basis of the promises of Scripture, that Jesus is our refuge and our fortress, that He is our shelter in the time of storm.

When we find that we can't seem to find any love, Jesus is that proverbial friend who sticks closer than a brother. This is the promise of Scripture. When we run out of money, Jesus is still the treasure in our soul. Have you learned how to trust Jesus for these things? For everything that you need in life? Not just to trust that Jesus will give you the other things that you need, but that Jesus Himself is what you need.

This is really what the promise is. If that is true, then Jesus really is worth it because if you have Him, the infinitely perfect Son of God, then you have many times more than anything you might give up to follow Him. How wonderfully this is expressed in the closing stanza of J. Wilbur Chapman's triumphant hymn on Jesus Christ as the friend of sinners. He says, "Jesus, I do now receive him, more than all in him I find."

Chapman goes on to testify to the forgiveness that he has received in Jesus Christ. He says, "Hallelujah, what a savior! Hallelujah, what a friend! Saving, helping, keeping, loving, he is with me to the end." That is the promise that Jesus is making here to His disciples and to us. A promise not just for now, but also for the end, when He will receive us into glory.

Notice again the second part of that double promise at the end of verse 30. That's a promise of eternal life. It's not just now that we have Jesus, but it is forever that we have Him. Jesus says that in the age to come, anyone who makes a sacrifice for the kingdom of God will receive eternal life. Now, of course, it's not because our sacrifices themselves merit anything. In fact, here in this very passage, Jesus has already said how impossible it is for us to be saved apart from the saving work of God.

It's all by His grace; our sacrifices don't merit anything. But when by the grace of God through faith in Him, we leave everything else behind to follow Jesus, we get both Jesus now and Jesus later and forever. Now, when Jesus speaks about eternal life, as He does here, of course, He's referring in part to life that is endless in its duration.

This is the promise that the gospel makes to anyone who believes in Jesus Christ: that you will live with God forever. Of course, that's essential to the perfection of heaven. You know that from your own experience of even the best experiences in life, how they are diminished when you have that pang of regret that comes when you realize they soon must come to an end. That diminishes the joy of the thing itself, doesn't it?

You realize the party is almost over, vacation is almost come to an end. With that little pang of regret, you know that this is not everything that your heart desires, that you are longing for something more permanent than that. But you know that little pang of regret, you'll never experience that in heaven. No, because the promise is for eternal life. It goes on and on and on. It's forever because God is an infinite God and has promised eternal life to His people.

It's not just the duration of the life that's the precious thing; it's the life itself. A life free from sin, your own sin and the sins of others. A life free from pain, either of body or soul. A life free from all the sorrows of our earthly tears. That's the eternal life that Jesus is promising, and it's a full life. A life full of worship, a life full of music, a life full of glory, a life full of God, lived in the presence of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

What blessings are waiting for us in the kingdom of God. Jesus is worth it to us now; He will be even more worth it to us later when we pass beyond the sky of this darkening world and see with our own eyes the dawn of an endless day. This is the testimony of Elizabeth Freeman, a pioneer missionary to India in the 19th century. Her life was tragically cut short by an attack of Muslim soldiers. She had been living and serving under very desperate and difficult circumstances for a number of years leading up to the time of her final trial, and she wrote these words to her niece back home.

She said, "I hope you will be a missionary wherever your lot is cast, and as long as God spares your life. For it makes but little difference after all where we spend these few fleeting years, if they are only spent for the glory of God. Be assured, there is nothing else worth living for." In her life, Elizabeth Freeman proved as well that there is nothing else worth dying for.

So far, I have been considering things from our perspective, asking whether Jesus is worth it for us. But if we look at what Jesus says in the next verses, verses 31 to 34, I think we are compelled to ask a much more fundamental question, and that is whether we are worth it to Jesus. Because you see, whatever blessings that Jesus has for us can only come at the cost of His blood.

Jesus knew this even before He went to the cross. So in the same context in which He was speaking to them about eternal life, He took the twelve and He said to them, "See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon, and after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise."

Now, this is at least the fourth time that Jesus has prophesied His sufferings and death. Back in chapter 9, towards the end of the chapter, He set His face towards Jerusalem. In that chapter, He spoke about the way that the Son of Man would suffer many things at the hands of the Jewish leaders, how He would be delivered into the hands of sinful men, how He would be killed.

Then later in chapter 13, Jesus said that as a prophet, it was necessary for Him to perish in Jerusalem, and only in Jerusalem. His impending death was never far from mind. Here in chapter 18, when He says, "We are going up to Jerusalem," you get a sense of urgency and immediacy, that these things are now at hand.

With beautiful skill, Luke, as the writer of this gospel, presenting us the life of Jesus Christ, is reminding us even before it happens of the passion of Christ. He's preparing us for what will happen at the end of the gospel. The crucifixion is at hand, and Jesus speaks more and more clearly, with more specific prophecy about His passion.

Notice the new and explicit information He gives here. He says for the first time that He will be handed over to the Gentiles. We get a hint of what will happen, that not just the Jews, but also the Gentiles will be complicit in His death. It will be the whole human race that puts Him to death. He speaks here of being mocked, of being beaten, of being abused in various ways, things He hasn't mentioned before, at least not in so many words.

We get the impression as we are working our way through the gospel that Jesus Himself is coming to a clearer awareness of the sufferings that He must endure. Perhaps the Father and the Spirit were revealing this to Him. Perhaps He could discern just from the way that people were plotting against Him what the end must be.

But it was also something Jesus had been studying in the Scriptures. Notice the way that He introduces this subject. Notice, as He introduces it, His absolute confidence in the Bible. He says, "Everything written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished." This is the way we ourselves are to regard the Bible as something that will certainly come true, and we get a wonderful example of Jesus' own attitude about Scripture here.

But what was it that the prophets said about the Son of Man? What was it that Jesus was learning and was being reminded of as He read in the Scriptures about David and Isaiah? What was He seeing in the prophets? He was seeing that the Son of Man would be forsaken by God. You can read about that in Psalm 22. That He would be mocked by enemies, tormented by thirst.

The prophecy was that He would be pierced through His hands and His feet. Or if you turn over to Isaiah, at the 53rd chapter, you see that He will be despised and rejected by men, that He will be wounded for transgressions, that He will be crushed for iniquities until finally He is poured out unto death. You see, it wasn't just that Jesus had to die, but that He had to die this way.

This was the prophecy that with the cruel sufferings of a body that was abused before it was crucified and with a soul that was forsaken by God, with these things, Jesus would suffer unto death. Here we see so clearly that Jesus knew all of this in advance. He knew what was waiting for him at the end of his Calvary Road.

So here he adds his own prophecy to the words of those ancient prophets. He tells his disciples, "This is the way it is going to be when we get to Jerusalem. This is what will happen to me. This is the way I will be treated." You'll notice at the end of verse 33, it's not just the crucifixion he's anticipating, but also the resurrection. Jesus knew the whole gospel. The whole gospel isn't just the cross; it's also the empty tomb, and Jesus knew that as well.

He knew it by the revelation of God. He knew it from searching the Scriptures, that His death would not be the end, but that the Spirit of the Father would raise Him from the dead, bringing Him back to life. Yet even so, as He anticipated His own final triumph on this journey to Jerusalem, Jesus had to ask if it was worth it.

This was the question of His life and His obedience: Was it worth it to be the suffering Savior? Worth it to suffer all the hardships of living as a man among fallen men? Was it worth it to endure the agony of Gethsemane where He sweated His tears in blood? Was it worth it to die the painful and shameful death of the cross? To be separated from the Father for a time, to feel and to be God-forsaken?

Was it worth it to do all of those things for sinners? Was it worth it to do it for you? Was it worth it to do it for me? Was it worth it to do it for people whose sins nailed Him to the cross? People who sometimes wonder whether Jesus is worth it for us, as if that really were the important question. With every step that He took towards Jerusalem, Jesus was saying, "Yes, it is worth it."

"Yes, it is worth it to me to keep the whole law for my people. Yes, it is worth it for me to do the will of my Father. Yes, to die for their sins. Yes, even if it requires the most excruciating suffering." It was worth it for Jesus when He was alone in the garden, when He was betrayed with a kiss, when He was accused falsely of wrongdoing that He had never done.

It was worth it when He was nailed to the cross and gave His soul up to death. We know that it was worth it because Jesus did it and because the Scripture tells us why. Consider the great words of Hebrews chapter 12. The Scripture says, "For the joy that was set before him, Jesus endured the cross, despising the shame," which is really just another way of saying that Jesus thought that we were worth it.

For that joy, that joy of giving Himself to us, of receiving us to Himself, of granting us the gift of eternal life, of seeing us glorify God for our salvation. For the joy of these things, Jesus considered it worth it to endure the cross. He was looking forward to the joy of giving Himself to us and bringing us to Himself. He was looking forward to the time when He would be worth it to us, and for that reason, He considered us worth it for Him.

The disciples didn't understand any of that. You can see that very clearly from verse 34. They understood none of these things. They were the most important things in the world, the most important things that anyone could ever know, and Jesus was saying them perfectly clearly, and yet the disciples didn't understand a word of it.

I suppose we can understand that. I mean, how could the disciples understand the Savior dying for their sins until they saw the suffering, bleeding Savior? How could they understand the rising on the third day until they looked into the empty tomb, until they saw the risen Christ? How could they understand these things until they had seen them for themselves?

They didn't understand it at the time, but Jesus told them about it so that they would understand it when the time came, and also so that we would understand it. These things are for our understanding so that we don't have to make the mistake that the disciples made. No, by the witness of the Holy Spirit, speaking in our minds and hearts, we can understand what is said here about our salvation.

Do you understand it? Do you understand that the Lord Jesus Christ offers Himself to you as your Savior? That He died on the cross for your sins? That He was raised from the dead to give you eternal life? Well, if you understand that, then surely you understand that it is worth anything that you have to offer to Him. It's certainly worth it.

Whatever hard sacrifices Jesus may be calling you to give up for the kingdom of God, whatever hard obedience that He is asking you to pursue, whatever it is that Jesus wants you to do, surely it is worth it. Worth it because He has given Himself to you. Never forget that: Jesus is only worth it to us because we were worth it to Him when He bled on the cross for our sins.

Father, we give you praise for the faithfulness of Jesus Christ in doing the saving work that He was called to do. Lord, how amazing it is to even think that we would be worth it to Jesus. Not worthy in ourselves, but worthy because of the value that He placed on us, the desire in His heart by His grace to bring us into salvation. Father, we pray by the grace of the Holy Spirit that we would be prepared to consider Jesus worthy above all things and to consider it worth it to do whatever Jesus is calling us to do. Father, we ask for this grace in Jesus' own name. Amen.

Mark: You are listening to Every Last Word with Bible teacher Dr. Philip Ryken, a listener-supported ministry of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. The Alliance exists to promote a biblical understanding and worldview, drawing upon the insight and wisdom of reformed theologians from decades and even centuries gone by.

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