Message: The Price of Admission by Randy Roberts 

Part 2 - (Tales from) The League of Extraordinary Disciples

Pastoral Welcome: Dan Matthews

Scripture Reading: Matthew 8:18–27, TNIV - Rob Mohr

PASTOR'S PAGE We human beings value membership. We like to belong. In fact, it may be more accurate to say that we long to belong. We long to belong to the team, the club, the group, the class, the league, the society, the neighborhood, the fraternity or sorority and … well, so many other things. Belonging carries with it a sense of well-being and connectedness. But belonging has its price. The price of admission to things like the theater and the ballgame has skyrocketed over the years. In fact, the price of admission to many events and clubs has climbed significantly. Certain sports have priced all but the most well-heeled fans out of the stadium. And, besides that, there is sometimes an emotional price. Hazing rituals at certain schools get out of hand. Bottom line? It costs to belong. The good news is that belonging to Jesus—and I say this with a profound sense of gratitude—is free! We can come to him and receive the gifts of his grace, salvation, and friendship “without money and without price” (see Isaiah 55:1). But here’s the profound irony. While, on the one hand, all that Jesus offers us is free, on the other hand, what he offers us costs us everything. What does that mean? Maybe we ought to note, first of all, that the cost is never either money or good works. We could never have enough of either of those to “buy” what Jesus offers. What it means is that, when we come to Jesus, we surrender ourselves and all that we are to him. It means that we give up ultimate control of our lives and that our lives are now under a new leader. It means that our “business” is under new management. It means that we no longer claim to have the final word on how we live. It means that we surrender all we have and are and do to him. That doesn’t happen (at least for most of us) in a moment. It is a process of daily surrender. And there is a name for this process: this process of learning to live under a new leader named Jesus is sometimes called discipleship. To be a disciple means that we become apprentices to Jesus—apprentices whose teacher and leader has the final word. The passage we consider in this message lays out the price of admission in rather stark terms. It is a passage that has perplexed and bewildered people. Some, in fact, have been so put off by it that they have found it hard to accept Jesus’ lordship because of what they understand it to say. By the grace of God, as we consider these words in the gospel of Matthew (8:18–27), we might come to see them in a new light and might come to understand the paradox of saying: what Jesus offers us is absolutely free, but it costs us everything we are and have. May God bless you in rich ways.

Randy Roberts
Senior Pastor

MEDITATION To deny oneself is to be aware only of Christ and no more of self, to see only him who goes before and no more the road which is too hard for us. Once more, all that self-denial can say is: “He leads the way, keep close to him.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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