Highlight Moments
- We are going to have a little biography of a man named John the Baptist, and we're going to see how important his life was to the Christian walk.
- Counting the cost means looking at how much something costs us and how much it gives us in return.
- The cost of following Jesus is everything. Your comfort, your goals, everything.
- John counted that cost and weighed it against what he'd be getting from that relationship with Jesus.
- Following Jesus, submitting himself to God meant being okay with being number two for the rest of his life.
Summary
The sermon focuses on the life of John the Baptist and the importance of counting the cost of following Jesus. It emphasizes that true discipleship requires understanding the sacrifices involved, including comfort and even life itself, as exemplified by John the Baptist's legacy.
Sermon Audio
Transcript
awesome stuff to talk about over the next six months, but does anyone know what we talked about over the weekend? Yeah, what'd we talk about? Be so for real, bro. What chapter in the gospel of John? Chapter? Easy. Chapter one. What do we see in chapter one? What Brady teach on? Just shout it out. About the word of God, which is who? God. It's Jesus. God in the flesh. Okay, we learned about this Jesus guy. Does anyone remember hearing about this guy named John the Baptist? You guys do. That's so awesome, because that's actually exactly who we're going to be talking about today. We are going to have a little biography of a man named John the Baptist, and we're going to see how important his life was to the Christian walk. So let's check this out. John the Baptist character study, and we're going to see one particular thing today, and that is a, we need to count the cost. Has anyone ever heard that term before? Count the cost. Can anyone tell me what count the cost means? No, but yes, it does mean count the cost, but what do those words mean action? Well, counting the cost means looking at how much something costs us and how much it gives us in return. So since you guys don't know what it is, maybe we should have a little bit of practice counting the cost. All right, let's check this out. We've got a candy bar up here. I don't have a big candy bar, but I do have five prize vouchers. Would anyone like these five prize vouchers? Okay, how much do they cost? How do you figure out how much they cost? You ask. So you guys ask, how much is this going to cost? They'll cost a high five. Who wants them? Okay, Tommy, I saw your hand first. Boom, bro. Five prize vouchers. Easy. And you can actually keep those. He counted the cost. It cost a high five. That's easy. He got an awesome prize. Five prize vouchers, which if you exchange them for candy has an exchange rate of 15 candies, by the way. So maybe share that with your friends. Okay. It's a lot. That's a really, really awesome thing for not a lot of money. Let's see this next one. Oh, snap. I got this thing right here. Okay. Does anyone know what this costs? It's going to cost $1,000. Who wants to buy it? If you do for $1,000, I will actually sell you a switch for $1,000. If you're being for real. Yes, I will. Because I can get it for 400 bucks and sell it to you for a thousand and make $600 profit. Do you want it? You're the one buying it, man. What do you guys think? Is $1,000 too much? Why is it too much? It's not worth it. You can get that somewhere else. You can buy a OLED switch for like 300 bucks nowadays because they're used. It's not worth the cost that I'm asking for. You're counting the cost of these items. Let's do it one more time. Check this out. What's this last one? A mansion. Does anyone want anyone want a mansion? Really? $10 billion. You want? Okay. None of you guys want it. Why? It's way too much. You don't value this at $10 billion. And Brady, you worked in real estate. Would you value this at $10 billion? 10 billion with a B. Yeah, probably not. Not in any market ever unless the economic collapse happens. It's not worth it. You guys here are counting the cost. You're seeing what it will cost you to do this and what it's going to return. And if the return is greater than the cost, well, you want it. If you have five prize vouchers, that's kind of cool. It's not as cool as a switch, but if all you have to pay for that is a high five, well, that's easy money. But if you're trying to buy a switch for a thousand dollars, you know, the cost is not worth what you're getting when you buy it. Now, counting the cost actually comes from the Bible and it comes from Luke 14, 27 through 28. And this is what Jesus says. He says this up here. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. Ouch. For which of you desiring to build a tower does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it. What Jesus is saying here is that if you're going to follow Jesus, you have to know what the cost is going to be. You have to sit down, count out exactly what it's going to cost you to follow him and see if the cost is worth what you're going to be getting in the end. Because as we're going to see from the life of a man named John the Baptist, the cost of following Jesus and he guesses what it is. It's free. It's nothing. You're dead wrong. It's the opposite. The cost of following Jesus is everything. Your comfort, your goals, everything. Even in the case of John the Baptist, his own life, the cost of following Jesus is everything. And that's why it's important we look at this man, John the Baptist, because he is a man who counted the cost and left a legacy because he understood what it was going to cost him, which was everything he had. But he saw the amazing eternity that he would have with God and said, yeah, that eternity with God is worth giving up my entire life, my comfort, even my own head for this. And you'll see exactly what I'm talking about in a little bit. So this man, John the Baptist, the man who counted the cost and left a lasting legacy. We don't have much time. If you guys have a Bible, please flip over to Luke chapter one, verse 36. We'll see a few things. Why did John the Baptist leave a successful legacy? He did these three things that we are called to do count the cost of following Jesus. He then, after counting the cost, lived a life of paying that price. And then finally, when he had lived his whole life, he won that awesome prize that he had set his eyes on that he said, this is worth more than all of my life put together. And we're going to see exactly what that is in just a few minutes. So let's check this out, guys. The first one was counting the cost. We are called to count the cost. John was called to count the cost. Now, first things first, does anyone know who John the Baptist is? Just shout it out. Who's this guy, John? Baptizing Jesus. Okay. And as I heard the cousin of Jesus, does anyone think that it's the author of John? Don't raise your hand because you will be embarrassed because I'm about to tell you it's not the author of the book, John. Those are two different Johns. It's very confusing. I know Jesus had a disciple named John. He wrote this book. He also had what was likely a cousin named John, and that is John the Baptist who we're going to talk about here. But does anyone hear what I just said about him being related to Jesus? What did I say he was? I said he was probably a cousin. Yeah, he was probably a cousin of Jesus. Can you imagine that? Being a cousin of Jesus? You think that'd be awesome or really bad? Pretty awesome. Who says it'd be awesome to be a cousin of Jesus? Who says it'd be really bad to be a cousin of Jesus? That's my hand. My hand is that it would probably be kind of hard to be Jesus's cousin, and we're going to see why right here. Check this out. John counted the cost. Is Jesus worth that cost? Because the cost is high. The cost of following Jesus is going to be a life of pain, sacrifice, and suffering. That's a high cost indeed. But John counted that cost and weighed it against what he'd be getting from that relationship with Jesus. So check this out. The first thing we see of him counting the cost is that he was a close relative of Jesus. If you guys are in Luke chapter one, check this out. It says an angel talking to Mary. Who's Mary? Mother of Jesus. Easy. So an angel is talking to Mary saying, even Elizabeth, your relative, is going to have a child in her old age, and this child would eventually be John the Baptist, which means if Mary and Elizabeth are related, who's also related? Jesus and John. Jesus and John were likely either close cousins or distant cousins, but either way, they probably grew up somewhat around one another. So check this out. He was a close relative of Jesus. And how many of you guys said you want to be cousins to Jesus? You would really? Because I think that would be really hard. Being a cousin of Jesus? How many of you guys in here have older siblings? Okay. How many of you guys have ever heard, why can't you be more like your older sibling? Have you guys ever heard that? You have? Okay. Well, I know lots of you guys have heard, oh, why can't you just be more like this? And if you haven't heard it with your ears, maybe you've just seen that behavior with your parents. Like, oh, why can't you just be more mature like them? Now, if I had an older sibling, which I don't, but if I did, that older sibling would still do things wrong. Okay, they're not perfect, but imagine growing up around Jesus, the perfect man, God in the flesh. Can you imagine being compared to Jesus? How unfair that would feel? John the Baptist had to count the cost because he grew up as a relative of Jesus. And when being compared to Jesus, man, I think John knew that he would be living a life, if he were to follow Jesus, he'd be living a life of being number two all the time. Because if you go to a family reunion and it's you and Jesus hanging out, who do you think your relatives are going to want to hang out with? Jesus, definitely. And if you're going and you're playing sports, who do you think is going to get drafted for the team? You or Jesus? Jesus. John understood, at least later in his life, that he was living a life of number two to Jesus. And he had to count that cost and weigh that against what the prize for following Jesus would be. You guys ever seen this before? Check out this quote. One of the hardest roles in the orchestra is to play the second violin. Has anyone ever heard that before? You haven't? That's perfect because I'm going to tell you about it right now. It's an awesome quote because when you're in an orchestra, you have violins. Are you following so far? You have a team of violins. And let's see, who gets all the credit if you're playing in a team of violins? The first one, the best one, the leader of all of them, which means who doesn't get all the glory? Everyone else. So if you're playing second violin, you're working just as hard as a number one violinist. You're putting in just as much time, but guess what you're not getting just as much as? The spotlight? The glory for it? Because you're not number one. And you guys ever play sports? Yeah? You guys ever play sports? Okay. How does it feel to work hard all season and still get benched? Terrible, bro. Why? Dude, you're exactly right. You put in just as much work as that forward. You put in just as much work as a quarterback, but it doesn't matter. You're on the bench. You're number two. You'll never be number one. That was the life of John the Baptist. Following Jesus, submitting himself to God meant being okay with being number two for the rest of his life. That's a hard, hard thing. How many of you guys want to be number two and never number one? Always living in the shadow of someone else. Really? You want to be? Yeah, of course we don't, but for following to follow Jesus, John had to accept this. He had to count the cost. If I'm going to follow Jesus, guess who's going to be number one in my life always? Not me. Jesus. And that's a hard thing to do. It's hard for John. It's hard for us. John had to weigh that cost. He would always be number two, but that was the life of the man named John. And just one more thing about this. I think this is really interesting because when Jesus was around your guys' age, check out what it says in Luke chapter two. After three days, they found him, Jesus, in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard them was amazed at his understanding and his answers. You know what I find crazy about this? Imagine Elizabeth, which is whose mother? John the Baptist. And Mary, which is whose mother? Jesus. Imagine they're two mothers meeting up and Mary's like, oh, Elizabeth, how's John doing? And Elizabeth says, oh, John's doing great. He's having a little bit of trouble memorizing Leviticus, but he's getting in there. He got into a little tussle at school, whatever. And Elizabeth asks, oh, Mary, how's Jesus doing? Oh, he's having the hardest time. He goes to bed at eight o'clock and then, man, each and every night, these religious leaders come knocking on our door, asking him these hard questions about the law. Can you imagine being John in that situation? Dude, growing up with Jesus around you, the perfect man, this wise man who is schooling his authorities in the law, that'd be a hard thing. But John counted this cost and said, you know what? Even if it means I'm going to be number two for the rest of my life. And trust me, he was worse than number two. Even if it means I'm going to be number two to Jesus for the rest of my life, that cost is worth the reward that he had his eyes set on, eternity with God. And we'll see exactly what that reward was that John got in the end. He said that following God was worth his price. So check this out. The second thing that we see, he counted the cost. He grew up around Jesus. He knew what it would mean to be number two for the rest of his life, to pave that way for Jesus. Now, let's see what he did to live that out. And this is where the biblical story picks up. So we see our second point here. He paid the price. And what happened? Well, let's check it out. He lived a life characterized by pain, sacrifice, and suffering. That was the price that John paid pain. Check out this first one. John one, 35 to 37, even his own followers started following Jesus. When they saw him, these disciples who John likely lived with and taught and shared meals with as soon as they saw Jesus teaching, guess what they did? I'm going over with Jesus, not you, John, because no offense, John, but Jesus is way better. Can you imagine that you're pouring into your friends? You're, I mean, you're being so nice. You're sharing your meals with them. And then they say, Jesus, they see Jesus. And they say, you know what? I'm not following you anymore. I'm going to go over with Jesus. That's painful. He paid the price through sacrifice. And John three 30, when he saw Jesus, he said this, he said, he must increase and I must decrease. He sacrificed what that means. I must decrease means less of my way, less of the things that I want to do and more of what Jesus wants me to do. That's hard. That's a hard sacrifice to say. Yeah. All of my desires, all of my goals, the things I want to do in life. I need to say, I'm not doing them anymore. I must decrease. Jesus must increase instead. And he lived a life of suffering in Matthew three, seven through 10. He called out powerful leaders. Now, hold on a second. How many of you guys have ever thought about telling off one of your mean teachers? You don't have to like us. Come on. I definitely have. You've never thought about telling off one of your mean teachers. Okay. Well, if you're not raising your hand, I still bet that you have. All right. And I, you know, I definitely did when I was in middle school, but that's not exactly what's going on here in Matthew seven or Matthew three, seven through 10. John is called to call out these religious leaders. Now I think that's kind of hard to put into perspective, but let's, let's shift that a little bit to us and gossipers. How many guys have friends? Really? Pretty good. Oh, that's awesome, man. You guys have friends. If someone's gossiping about your friend, what are you supposed to do? Stand up for him. But if you stand up to a gossiper, who is that gossiper going to start gossiping about you for John to tell off these religious leaders was not some awesome, easy thing. When John told off these religious leaders, he got in big trouble with them and it eventually costed him his life. John's life was a life characterized by pain and sacrifice and suffering. This is the price that John was paying for following Jesus. And it's the price that we are called to pay for following Jesus as well. But he does this because not just because the price is high, but because what he is paying that towards is so, so much better. So I know there's been a ton of buildup. You know, we've looked at what John has been paying, what he's been doing, how he's been working hard. Let's see the amazing thing that John gets at the end of his life for paying all this forward. You guys ready? How many of you guys are ready to do this? Oh yeah. John 11, two, he's imprisoned for following Jesus. John 11, three, he's discouraged. He asks Jesus, are you even the one that we're supposed to be waiting for? And of course Jesus says yes. But then in Mark 6, 27 through 28, what happens to him? He gets beheaded. Who can tell me what beheaded means? You can? They chopped off his head. Yeah, you're right. What was the amazing prize that he got at the end of his life? Imprisoned, discouraged, and beheaded. Does that sound like an awesome prize to be spending our life towards? It does really. Why Tommy? Why? Yeah, that's what I thought. This is it. One of the greatest biblical figures of all time and his life ends with imprisonment, discouragement, and getting beheaded. He did not even see the risen Jesus on earth. You realize that? I don't even think at this time John knew what Jesus's plan was because his disciples didn't. By this time Jesus's disciples didn't even understand that he was going to die and rise again. I'm sure John didn't either. He did not get to see the end of Jesus's mission. He died alone in prison having his head cut off. Does that sound like an awesome life to you guys? No, it does not. This is the result of a life devoted to Jesus. Following Jesus means pain, sacrifice, and suffering and John knew this. But why? If he knew it would be pain, sacrifice, and suffering, why would he pay that price? Any guesses? Yeah, sorry, Kinley. Because God's better than those things? Okay, okay. Well, by all accounts, John's life is a failure except for one thing. Anyone know what that one thing is? No guesses? That one thing is that Jesus did die and rise again and that turned everything upside down. If Jesus had not risen, none of this pain, sacrifice, and suffering would mean anything and this would be a pathetic death of a pathetic man. But instead, this pain and sacrifice and suffering was being used for something greater and that something was God's glory. What did God do with these things? He used pain, sacrifice, and suffering to promote growth, love, and ultimately Christ-likeness in the death of John the Baptist. What was the spiritual result of all of this, of a life of pain, sacrifice, suffering, and following Jesus? He won the prize. What prize was that? Let's check it out. John 11, 11. You know that Jesus said about John the Baptist that that was the greatest man born to women? Do you guys know that? That's a pretty crazy compliment. Can you imagine God in the flesh saying that you were the greatest man to be born? Has he said that about any of you guys? Unfortunately not. Me neither. But John the Baptist? Yeah. Acts 18.25. Has anyone ever heard about Apollos before? Apollos? No? Really? Okay. In the New Testament, in Acts, we see these early Christian teachers who are going around teaching. Well, Apollos, let's see what it says right here. In Acts 18.25, it says, he, Apollos, had been instructed in the way of the Lord. Okay. Being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus. Check this out. Though he knew only the baptism of John. That's really interesting. What does that mean? Well, it means that John's branch of teaching before he died made its way to Apollos. That one of the most influential early teachers in Christianity was getting his stuff from this guy, John the Baptist. Could you imagine teaching other people about Jesus? And then you find out that like some guy like Einstein is telling people about Jesus from those teachings that you gave? That's awesome. Yes. Like that guy. Alright. And the third thing, Matthew 3.5-6, God used him to save many people. And I think this is the biggest one. What was the result or the fruit of a life of pain, sacrifice, and suffering is that God used John the Baptist to bring hundreds, if not thousands of people into the kingdom of God. What does it say? In Matthew 3.5-6, it says, then Jerusalem and all Judea and the region around the Jordan were going out to him and they were baptizing by him in the river, confessing their sins. God used John the Baptist to bring hundreds, if not thousands of people into the kingdom of God. Can any of you guys say that? I definitely cannot say that. Brady can't say that. Sorry, guys. John the Baptist was used to do an amazing, amazing thing because he told God, hey, my life, I'm gonna make it number two to follow you. This is what he did. This is what we see. He did not even see the resurrected Jesus on earth. His life looked like a failure. But because of life after death brought in by Jesus, all of that pain, sacrifice, and suffering was an eternal investment. Not only would John eventually see the resurrected Jesus in heaven for eternity, but also hundreds, if not thousands of people that God saved by working through him. Can you imagine that? You tell all your friends about Jesus and then you get to see them in heaven with you forever. What a privilege that would be. And not just a few people, five or six or seven, hundreds, if not thousands of people that were reached through what God did through John. Can you imagine hearing in heaven, I thank God for what he did through you? I believe this is what John the Baptist is going to be hearing. This is the thing that John was working his life towards. The pain, the sacrifice, and suffering was for God's glory to bring more people to know him. And then eventually I believe he would hear, man, John, I thank you for what God did in your life, for being willing that God would work through you. That's awesome. He counted the cost. He knew the path of following God would be difficult to say the least. Maybe that cost for us is being a social outcast or leaving behind something that we enjoy. Or maybe it's not dating someone or being hated by your family, whatever it is. If you want to follow Jesus, the cost is high. It's going to cost you comfort. It's going to cause you to have to pay in pain and sacrifice and suffering. It's going to be hard. But the result of a life following Jesus is tremendous. John was willing and God used him to point many back to the father. And I believe John will eternally be in the joy of being all that God made him to be. I thank God for you. Are you going to hear that from someone in heaven? Are you letting God use you? Or are you being comfortable? Because those things are opposite. God using us means pain, sacrifice, and suffering. And that's hard. It's a high price to pay. Those things are opposite. Following God is uncomfortable. But when our lives look uncomfortable and painful and sacrificial and full of suffering, that's what John's life looked like. And what was the end result of John's life? Hundreds, if not thousands of people coming to know Jesus because of him laying the foundation for Jesus's ministry. Maybe you're sitting in here and you don't have a God to thank for those people who are pointing you to him. Let me invite you to count the cost of following Jesus, because the cost is high. It's going to cost you everything. Comfort, ease, even your own life. But the reward is a thousand lifetimes in the presence of the God who loves you enough to live a perfect life and die for you. And I believe this is why John counted the cost and saw it fit to lay down his life for Jesus. Are you going to join the last 2000 years of individuals following in the footsteps of John the Baptist and counting the cost, paying the price and winning the prize? I hope you will. I want to. I hope you guys will join us in that. So I'm going to invite the worship team and we're going to spend some time thanking God for the awesome opportunity that we have to follow in the footsteps of John the Baptist and saying, God, my life is number two and I want to live for you. Let's do this. We're all going to stand up. Let's pray. Jesus, we thank you for this time. I thank you, God, that we have the opportunity to follow you in this to say, God, my life is number two. I know that this is going to be a high price to pay, but Lord, you are worth it. Please convict us of that. Convince us of that, that you are worth the high cost of following you. We thank you, God, for this time. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen.
