Guest Editorial from City of Angels Church: “Sold-Out” Disciples

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.”

Matthew 13:44-46

…when the miracles of God cease, there is sin among God’s people. God desires a holy people, total­ly devoted to Him and Him only. Interestingly, though Achan’s family presumably did not steal the “devoted things,” they lived in the same tent and surely must have known about it. Leviticus 5 and Ezekiel 3 teach that if one knows about sin and is silent, God holds that individual responsible, because they are not helping to keep God’s people holy. Therefore God commanded Israel to stone Achan and his family. When the “sin in the camp” was purged from Israel, Israel was once again victorious!

In the lesson, I paralleled Israel’s lack of holiness during the battle of Ai to Paul’s teachings in 1Corinthians 5. Sadly, the Corinthian Church was “proud” of their toleration of a man in their congregation who was being immoral with his father’s wife. Paul called the Corinthian Church to “expel the wicked man” from their fellowship, because “a little leaven works through the whole batch.” If immorality, greed, idolatry, bitterness or lukewarmness is tolerated in individual members, in time these sins will spread and destroy that entire congregation. Therefore, I explained on Sunday that in the City of An­gels Church, each baptism, each restoration and each person placing membership is called to the same “sold-out” standard of holiness. This standard is the same in the Old Testament and New Testament, “to love the Lord with all our hearts, soul, mind and strength.” I believe this call of discipleship is one of the main reasons our 87 members, all “ambassadors for Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:20), saw God work through them as 257 people were in attendance this Sunday!

Jesus calls every man and every woman to be a radi­cal, sold-out disciple. In Luke 14:26, Jesus proclaims, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and moth­er, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters – yes, even his own life – he cannot be my disciple.” Jesus is emphatic that to follow Him one must love Him more than any per­son. Interestingly, the word “hate” did not have to be used, yet our perfect, sinless Savior did not tone down His teach­ings to become “PC,” “politically correct.” As a matter of fact, Jesus called those with lust “to gouge out their eyes,” (Matthew 5:27-29), those who do not practice what they preach, “whitewashed tombs” (Matthew 23:27-28), and on at least one occasion turned to Peter, a best friend and said, “Get behind me Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” (Matthew 16:23) John records in his gospel, “The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John [the Baptist], although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized but His disciples.” (John 4:1-2) As one of His apostles, John fully understood that Jesus’ ministry baptized only disciples. This begs the question, “To be ready to be bap­tized, what does it take to be a disciple in one’s heart?” In Luke 14:33 Jesus clearly taught, “Any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.” The ac­count of the rich young ruler in Mark 10 again reinforces the concept of giving up “everything.”

The Bible reads, “Jesus looked at him and loved him. ‘One thing you lack,’ He said. ‘Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’ At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, ‘How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!’” Jesus commanded the rich young ruler to “sell everything,” thus the term “sold-out.” Later in this same passage Peter exclaims, “We have left everything to follow you.” Clearly, Peter understood Je­sus called each of His followers to give up “everything.” Today, Jesus is still calling each person who would follow to be sold-out.

In 2 Chronicles 16:9, “The eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him.” To be “fully committed” is to be sold-out. Several months ago on the internet I read an account from the Muslim nation of Indonesia of three “Christian-oriented” teenage girls who were beheaded. In the book of Revelation, to be “fully committed,” to be faithful, is defined as holding to “the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.” (Revelation 1:2, 9; 2:13; 6:9; 12:11, 17; Revelation 19:10) In fact in Revelation 2:10 Jesus says, “Be faithful, even to the point of death and I will give you the crown of life.” In the first century, to be baptized meant you could be killed the next day! I still remember “counting the cost” with a Chinese student from mainland China. (He happened to be a Clint Eastwood movie fan!) At the end of this session I asked, “If you return home to communist China and the au­thorities put a gun to your head and demand that you renounce Christ or die, what do you say?” He calmly replied, “Go ahead. Make my day!”

Our 2008 1st Principles Class: What a crew!

Wherever I go people ask the question, “Where does Jesus teach we must be ‘sold-out’ disciples?” I usually do not directly answer the question but ask them to read out loud Matthew 13:44-46. “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hid­den in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold every­thing he had and bought it.” Then I ask them, “What kind of disciple does Jesus want us to be?” Almost always they answer, “A sold-out disciple!”

Yes, the term, “sold-out disciple” is redundant. So, why do we use it? In 1980 shortly after the Lord started the Boston Movement, I met a student at Harvard who said, “The only difference between your conviction and my conviction on sal­vation is that you believe you have to be baptized to be saved.” I said no and showed her several of the passages about being a disciple. (A short time later, I made “discipleship” one of the studies in our new study series.) In the world back then and presently, so many people have so many definitions for “Chris­tian.” Yet in 1980 the term “disciple” was quite distinct. Sadly today the term “disciple” has been watered-down. Therefore, since so many have cheapened the word “disciple”, in order to draw a Biblical distinction, we call those who follow Jesus, “sold-out” disciples, because as in the two parables of Matthew 13:44-46, the individuals “sold everything” they had to have the treasure of God, salvation.

To be noted, there was a time in the ministry of Jesus when some of “His disciples turned back.” “On hearing it, many of His disciples said, ‘This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?’ Aware that His disciples were grumbling… Jesus said… ‘Does this offend you?’ From this time many disciples turned back and no longer followed Him.” (John 6:66) Then Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked them if they wanted to leave as well. “Peter answered Him, ‘Lord to whom should we go? You have the words of eternal life.’” (John 6:60-68) Both then and now, grumbling and bitterness among disciples indicates a “non-sold-out” heart. These sins cause people’s hearts to drift from God (Hebrews 2:1-2) and their sold-out commitment of “Jesus is Lord” confessed at baptism. (Romans 10:9-13, Acts 22:16) Ultimately, if there is no repentance, they will lose their salva­tion. (Hebrews 12:15) Jesus’ call to be sold-out is preached in a lukewarm or dead church, the message will appear “divisive” and “harsh” as many will choose to turn back and not follow Him. In some cases, two churches will be created; one that is composed of only sold-out disciples and the other church will be those who love the status quo.

Let us never forget our salvation is priceless and cannot be bought, but Jesus requires us to give up “every­thing” in response to this “gift.” Jesus reasons with us in Luke 9:25 (Phillips), “For what is the use of a man gaining the whole world if he loses or forfeits his own soul?” Jesus pleads with everyone not to “sell-out” to the world, but to be “souled-out” to Him! City of Angels Church, let’s remain humble yet unapologetically sold-out disciples will­ing to go anywhere, do anything and give up “everything” for Jesus, His church and His mission! And to God be the glory!

Kip McKean- World Missions Evangelist