John 15:20

Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.

From Background Notes [BN] for March 3^rd/4^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

A great weakness in our appeals for others to become disciples of Jesus lies in our pandering to human, selfish wants. We give false hopes by telling people, “Come to Jesus and everything will be sunshine and roses.”

While we might not use those exact words, we may well imply them by the overly accommodating ways we present the Gospel. Jesus refused such “flowery beds of ease” when he explained the cost of following him. We would do well to re-read the Bonhoeffer quotations that began this week’s study. The phrase “cheapjacks wares” conjures up a powerful image that reminds us of the “junk food” of the empire and our tendency to promise such things to  people we are trying to bring into the kingdom. Jesus’ own disciples imagined the kingdom to be the place where they could sit next to him in famous splendor, on the right and on the left (Matthew 20:21). Without hesitation, Jesus refuses such a promise to them, and instead inquires whether they are ready to be “baptized with his baptism,” a somewhat mysterious reference to his coming death (Mark 10:38-39). In various places throughout the Gospels, Jesus spoke directly about the kind of future the disciples would likely face if they followed him completely. [BN, 13]

Join us this week in Study & Worship at ChicagoFirstChurch of the Nazarene –

* Saturday 6:00pm
* Sunday 8:30am & 11:00am, 5:30pm