"When I survey the wondrous cross, On which the Prince of glory died, My richest gain I count but loss, And pour contempt on all my pride.

When you survey this wondrous cross what is your response? Does seeing it change how you see your accomplishments in life? Does seeing this cross cause you to be driven to give all, yet realizing if you had all it would still not be enough? When you survey this wondrous cross, what kind of response is required? The answer is simple but costly beyond measure. The only adequate response is to give your life to becoming a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ.

What does a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ look like? Well, they look like someone who reflects the same values found in Acts 2:42-47. These followers of Jesus Christ were those whose lives were the first to respond to this wondrous cross. Their response was that they gave their "all". The same lifestyle values that changed their world can change our world but it won’t happen without our "all." They demonstrated a passionate devotion to the cross knowing that their "all" might be their life. "Their commitment exacted a high price—many were persecuted and killed—but their unrestricted devotion to Christ resulted in the spread of a church that has lasted 2000 years, regardless of the political, geographic, sociological and spiritual roadblocks that have occurred." (Growing True Disciples, George Barna, p. 25)

Yet we can still have what they had today. It is not a question of God’s ability for the same power they had we have available as well. The difference is the degree of our commitment. Acts 2:42 says they were "devoted" to certain things. That word is a combination of two words that mean an unrelenting adherence or commitment to something. These followers were committed to being engaged in worship, learning, relationships, sharing, serving, evangelizing, and prayer. The result was numerical growth, cultural influence, and God being glorified

They gave themselves to six lifestyle changes and would be remembered as those who "turned the rest of the world upside-down" (Acts 17:6). All they had was the power of the Holy Spirit and a radical devotion to certain key values and they made a different world!

We, however, as the modern church, try to elect politicians, enact laws, use the media-print, video and internet, shape the minds of youth through education in Christian schools, devise marketing schemes, hold crusades, revivals and outreach events, develop programs and ministries, fine tune worship services for the "target" demographic and spend for our church alone over $1.6 million to influence your thinking and behavior through programs and building improvements. None of those things are without merit and value. The question is, "Does it make a difference?" Are we gaining in influence and are we changing more and more lives? If we really measured how we were doing and what we were accomplishing with all we do, how are we doing? And if we are not doing so well, what do we need to do?

My answer to you this morning is that we, as individual believers, need a fresh radical passion to become a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ. Acts 2:42-47 describes the result of what happened when the Holy Spirit’s power fell on those who waited as Jesus had said. What is astounding is that everything that Jesus had told, trained and taught them now suddenly came alive. They would go out and "infiltrate their culture with a life-giving message, a transformed lifestyle and a burning desire to serve God with every ounce of capacity they possessed—or die in the process" (Growing True Disciples, p. 14).

Adventurer Robert Young Pelton was confronted with the price of commitment while in Afghanistan. He writes, "When I was being shelled on a front line north of Kabul, I asked a 23-year-old Taliban fighter, ‘Why don’t we dig trenches to escape the bombardment?’ He looked at me and asked, ‘If you didn’t come here to die, why are you here?’" (Robert Young Pelton, The Adventurist: My Life in Dangerous Places (Doubleday, 2000) I wonder if those first disciples would ask the same question of us? "If you didn’t come here knowing that this cross might demand your all then why are you here?" We hear those words and recoil from them and assume that our commitment of 75% or 85% or 95% is still more than enough. The truth is that even if you are 95% committed to being a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ, you are still 5% short.

What were the values that they were devoted to following that we can use as a standard to measure our commitment? As you look at these understand that it’s a lifelong commitment to a lifestyle. Even the verb tenses that Luke used in this passage in Acts are progressive not static. He used the imperfect tense, which meant something that was always continuing never being complete. These are things that we will never achieve fully but they are things that will always cry out for our "all".

Let me give you five that I find in these verses.

Luke says they were devoted to the "apostles doctrine" or teaching. They did not have anything other than what Jesus had taught them and somehow this knowledge about what they recalled was the core of their instruction. They, no doubt, taught about his resurrection, Jesus’ interpretation of Old Testament scriptures and other things. While incomplete, they knew that the truth of God’s word revealed in Jesus was necessary for their development.

As a believer, is your passion for God’s word growing or stagnant? How often do you pick up your Bible—not a Sunday School book or devotional book, not listen to a sermon in person or radio or TV—and read it? Is that getting more and more frequent or less and less important? If I am a fully devoted follower, then I cannot be satisfied with the level of my understanding of God’s word at any stage. Am I 5% short when it comes to a growing passion for God’s word? ["Wish I got paid to have a quiet time." Ed Berry example.]

The word "fellowship" is used here (and the only time in Acts!) to describe association, communication and a close relationship. A word that we are using to describe what a church is is the word "community." A community is a place where the relationships depend on one another. For these followers that sense of belonging was reflected in a single-mindedness in worship, relationships and sharing their meals together. What Luke describes here is totally foreign to our American way of life due to our spirit of independence rather than interdependence.

I visited an Indian couple who are attending our church this past Monday. I was apologetic for dropping by unannounced. In our conversation they told me that in India no one sets a time to come by a person’s home. You just come by. When you cook a meal you always fix more because you know someone will come by. When you watch a good TV program, you go over to someone else’s home to watch it. That’s what community means—lives so open and interrelated that to think of doing anything alone is unthinkable.

Are we like that or are we continually shutting others out? Rather than our sense of belonging growing we are rather pursuing our being alone. A fully devoted follower has a deepening dependency on God’s people. They will not allow a 5% shortage to remain.

These words that Luke uses describe what we would identify as worship. He says they continually devoted themselves to "breaking of bread and prayer." This doesn’t mean a potluck or a picnic on Sunday afternoon. It meant the time that they would celebrate the Lord’s Supper. In that moment of passing the bread and cup and pausing for intense prayer they experienced the very living presence of God. Luke goes on to say in verse 46 that this experience of worship was demonstrated at the Temple and from house to house. They had been taught for generations the rituals of worship but now they knew a relationship with the living God through their worship.

Now, it is obvious to you that we don’t take the Lord’s Supper every time we meet, nor do we come together for only times of prayer. The application for us is are you developing in your experience of God’s presence, both personally and publicly? Are you experiencing God’s presence here or when you are alone? We cannot be content to think that the forms or functions of our worship are worship. A song, hymn, chorus, prayer, sermon, scripture reading or any other component is only worship if you connect with an experience of God’s presence. So is that happening? It’s not the fault of the routine or the ritual. The fault lies in your relationship with God. A fully devoted follower is developing in their experience of God’s presence.

Luke expresses how radically different they were by saying that they had a common unity that resulted in a radical sharing of their resources. Luke again uses a verb tense that describes action as continuous. The repeated use of the imperfect tense in these two verses (five times) shows that this was their established practice, which involved both what we would call their real estate ("possessions") and their personal possessions ("goods"). The early Christians acknowledged that Jesus owns both them and their property (cf. Acts 4:32); they sell off property to meet needs as they arise (Acts 4:34-35) and open their homes as meeting places for fellow Christians (Acts 2:46). These actions do not reflect an ascetic ideal, but instead the practice of radically valuing people over possessions.

In a way this was merely a reflection of what had taken place earlier for them. For them to have followed Jesus as He required meant that they had already surrendered their way of life so now they just expanded that on a daily basis. God’s resources for us are more than our money. God’s resources are anything that He has given to you that can be shared with someone else. A fully devoted follower realizes fully that their eternity has been purchased with His blood and, in turn, considers everything they have as belonging to Him to be applied where He needs it. A fully devoted follower measures their sharing more by what’s left than what’s given.

Luke says that as a result of their continual devotion to key lifestyle principles that "the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved." What strikes me most about this is that it was the natural result of the passion of their life. They were growing in God’s word, depending on God’s people, experiencing God’s presence, sharing God’s resources then as a product of those things lost people were found and brought into a relationship with Christ.

You see the end goal of a fully devoted follower is both personal and public. Personally we seek to live a life that reflects Christ and is worthy of the name "Christian." The public or outward goal is to join Jesus in His task to seek and save what is lost and enable that person to in turn live the life of someone worthy of being known as a Christian. That person is never at rest while they know that the Father is looking for even one person who has yet to found.

Conclusion: Over these last weeks we have spent time presenting to you what it mans to be a member of FBC, Jonesboro. We’ve talked about what it means to be a Christian, the church, obey Christ’s commands, a Baptist, FBC Jonesboro, and finally today, what it means to be a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ. It is this last statement that is the most critical for directing change in our life, church and community. You see, Jesus called people to follow Him and infilled them with power and then changed the world. He’s still anxious to fill people not programs, methods, plans, budgets, offerings or buildings with all of Himself.

So what’s the problem? The real obstacles to becoming a fully devoted follower are not money, time, methods or knowledge. The major obstacle is our human heart. You change my heart and you have changed everything else. The only thing stopping you from being a fully devoted follower is you.

"When I survey the wondrous cross, On which the Prince of glory died, My richest gain I count but loss, And pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, Save in the death of Christ, my God; All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood.

See, from His head, His hands, His feet, Sorrow and love flow mingled down; Did e’er such love and sorrow meet, Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were a present far too small; Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all."

Maybe, just maybe we need to spend some time looking at the cross.

Sunday, May 6, 2001

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org