Please turn to Matthew 11. We will read from Matthew 11:28-30.
Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.
Turn also to Matthew 28. We will read from Matthew 28:16-20.
But the eleven disciples went into Galilee, unto the mountain where Jesus had appointed them.
And when they saw Him, they worshipped Him; but some doubted.
And Jesus came to them and spake unto them, saying, All authority hath been given unto Me in heaven and on earth.
Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit:
Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.
Finally, turn to Luke 14. We will read from Luke 14:25-35.
Now there went with Him great multitudes: and He turned, and said unto them,
If any man cometh unto Me, and hateth not his own father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.
Whosoever doth not bear his own cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple.
For which of you, desiring to build a tower, doth not first sit down and count the cost, whether he have wherewith to complete it?
Lest haply, when he hath laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, all that behold begin to mock him,
Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.
Or what king, as he goeth to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and take counsel whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?
Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and asketh conditions of peace.
So therefore whosoever he be of you that renounceth not all that he hath, he cannot be My disciple.
Salt therefore is good: but if even the salt have lost its savor, wherewith shall it be seasoned?
It is fit neither for the land nor for the dunghill: men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
We thank the Lord for gathering us together again this morning. If you were here yesterday morning, you know that our burden at this time is very focused. We are considering together the matter of our fourfold relationship with Christ.
As long as we live upon this earth, we live in relationships. We have relationships with our parents, our siblings, our neighbors, our fellow students, our associates, and perhaps, as we grow older, with our children and grandchildren. Our life is composed of relationships.
Our life will be judged by relationships—whether our life is successful or a failure—according to how we relate to people.
But, my brothers and sisters, there is a more basic relationship that we oftentimes neglect. Unless our relationship with God is correct, all these human relationships cannot be corrected.
We focus our attention upon improving our human relationships, yet we may neglect our proper relationship with Christ. Then we will find that all our efforts are in vain.
So, to us Christians, the most basic and important thing with which we need to be concerned is our relationship with Christ.
Yesterday we began with our first relationship with Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ is our Kinsman-Redeemer. He came into this world to be a man just like we are, that He might be our Redeemer.
He paid a heavy cost to redeem us, and thank God, we are the redeemed of the Lord.
What should be our response to our Kinsman-Redeemer? We need to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice to Him.
In other words, we are constrained by His love. Knowing that One died for all, therefore all died, we now live not to ourselves; we live for Christ. This is consecration.
Consecration is not limited merely to those who desire to be preachers. It must be done by every redeemed child of God.
Have you presented your body as a living sacrifice to Christ? Have you given the right to your life to Christ and allowed Him to work out His full salvation in you? This is the basic relationship with Christ.
This morning we would like to go a little further, and consider the relationship between the Master and the disciples.
In Matthew 11, we hear the call of our Lord Jesus. He calls those who labor and are heavy laden, saying, “Come unto Me, and I will give you rest.”
Thank God, when we come to Him, we find rest in our spirit. All our sins have been forgiven. We can stand before the righteous God, and we become God’s children. What a salvation that is!
Then, following the first call, there is immediately a second call. The Lord Jesus says, “Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”
That is to say, not only is your spirit renewed; even your soul will come into rest. His yoke is easy, and His burden is light.
So you find in the Gospels that when people believe in the Lord Jesus, this is usually followed by the call to become disciples of Christ.
For instance, Andrew came to the Lord Jesus, and immediately he brought his brother Simon to the Lord Jesus, saying, “We have found the Messiah.” You remember this record in John 1.
Simon was a man of many words. He liked to talk. But strangely, when he was led into the presence of the Lord, he was speechless.
The Lord looked at him. In the original language, the word means that He looked him up and down and looked into his very being. Then the Lord Jesus said, “Thou art Simon; thou shalt be called Peter.” In other words, “You will become a living stone.”
That was how Peter was led to the Lord, as well as James. Then you remember that the Lord was walking by the Sea of Galilee. When He saw Peter and Andrew casting their nets, because they were fishermen, He said, “Come ye after Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
What happened? They left the nets, they left the boat, and followed the Lord Jesus. A little later, He saw James and John mending their nets. The Lord said, “Come and follow Me,” and they left everything and followed Him.
This happened again and again. It happened to Philip, Nathanael, and Levi, that is, Matthew. Everyone who believes in the Lord Jesus is called to follow the Lord Jesus.
As a matter of fact, these two calls are one. They are two sides of one coin. To those who do not know the Lord Jesus, the call is, “Come, and I will give you rest.” But to those who come and find rest, the Lord says, “Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me. Be My disciple.”
Of course, today it is difficult to understand what discipleship means, because we think disciples are simply students. But modern students are very different from disciples in former times.
As a student today, you pay a fee, enter a school, sit in a classroom, and listen to your professor. If you are not happy with that school, you can change to another school. That is the modern student.
But in the old days, there were no schools in that sense. If you wanted to learn a trade, you would be apprenticed to a master.
Suppose you wanted to learn carpentry. Your parents would find a good carpenter and apprentice you to him. Your parents would sign a contract with that master carpenter.
After the contract was signed, they would send you to your master’s house. You would live in your master’s house and become part of his family.
What would he do with you? You went there to learn carpentry, but very often during the first year, he would not even allow you to touch the tools.
What would you do in the family? When the master was eating, you would serve him. You might carry the children, sweep the floor, and do many household duties.
You might say, “I did not come for such things. I came to learn carpentry. I am wasting my time doing this.” But in the old way, this was the way of learning.
Perhaps in the second year, he would allow you to touch the tools, and he would begin to teach you. After a few years, you would graduate.
When you graduated, what had you learned? You had learned not only your master’s skill; you had learned your master’s life.
Very often, when you became a carpenter, you would talk like your master, walk like your master, and even think like your master. You had learned not only the skill, but also your master’s manner and his way of life.
This is the traditional meaning of discipleship. That is why our Lord Jesus said, “Come and follow Me. Come and live with Me. Learn of Me.”
We are not merely to learn His skill, but to learn His life. When you truly learn from Him, you will become like Him. That is discipleship.
Every believer is supposed to be a disciple of Christ.
In Matthew 28, we have what we call the Great Commission. Before our Lord Jesus ascended, His eleven disciples came to Him, and He said, “All authority in heaven and on earth hath been given unto Me. Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations.”
He told them to baptize people into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and to teach them to observe everything that He had commanded. He promised, “I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”
We call this the Great Commission. But, brothers and sisters, it is unfortunate that we do not always understand the Great Commission correctly.
Especially from the eighteenth century onward, Christians began to realize that they needed to go to the nations and evangelize them. They realized that they could not live merely for themselves, but had to preach the gospel to the nations and bring people to Jesus Christ.
Thank God, from that time the gospel began to spread. But this is only the beginning of the Great Commission.
The Great Commission does not simply mean, “Go to the nations.” It means, “Make disciples of all nations.” The heart of the Great Commission is discipleship.
Of course, you cannot make disciples without first evangelizing people. But you cannot stop with evangelism. If you stop there, you have not fulfilled the Great Commission.
The Lord Jesus desires that everyone who comes to Him should become His true disciple. He wants to save us to the uttermost—not merely to bring our feet into heaven.
Our God has a great plan for us. He not only justifies us, and He not only sanctifies us; He wants to glorify us.
To glorify us simply means that He wants us to be transformed and conformed to the image of His beloved Son.
This can only be accomplished through discipleship—by following the Lord Jesus, being yoked together with Christ, and learning of Him.
Today there is a mistake in Christianity. People separate being saved from being a disciple, as though they were two different things. But actually, they are two sides of one coin.
If you have read Against the Tide, the story of our dear brother Watchman Nee, you may remember that he was brought up in a Christian family. He was the third generation in that Christian family, but he did not believe in the Lord Jesus.
After his mother came to the Lord, she tried to have family devotions. One day, as she went to the piano to play, the Holy Spirit convicted her: “Go to your son and apologize to him.”
At one time a vase had been broken, and she had thought Watchman had done it. She punished him, though he was innocent. The Holy Spirit told her to apologize to her son.
In China, parents did not normally do such a thing. Parents were always right. But the Holy Spirit would not leave her alone. She could not play. Finally, she went to Watchman and said, “Forgive me.”
That touched the heart of Watchman Nee. Later, when he was invited to hear an evangelist—the one who had led his mother to Christ—he said, “Anyone who can convert my mother is worth hearing.”
The first night he was convicted. He knew that he was a sinner. He knew that he needed to believe in Jesus. But he struggled, because he was a brilliant young man with his future all planned out.
He understood that if he accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior, at the same time he had to surrender himself to Jesus Christ as his Master. He had to give up his own rights.
He could not do that, so he struggled over the matter for several days. One day, in his room while praying, he saw the blackness and, at the same time, the redness of the blood of Jesus Christ.
The love of Christ broke him down. He said, “Lord, take my life.” That was how he was saved.
To be saved and to be a disciple of Christ are one. The reason Christians today are often so weak is that they divide these two things. They say that you can be a believer but not be a disciple.
But in the Scriptures this is not true. If you are a believer, then you are called to be a disciple of Jesus. If you desire to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, you must leave everything and follow the Lord.
This is why, in the Great Commission, the Lord says to make disciples of all nations by baptizing them into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Some may say, “Is it not enough if I believe in Jesus as my Savior?” Of course, believing in the Lord Jesus saves us. Water itself cannot wash away sin.
But remember: baptism is the entrance to discipleship. Unless you are baptized into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, you have not begun to be a disciple of Christ.
Why? Because you are still holding yourself in your own hand. You have not yet identified yourself with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection.
When you are baptized, what does it mean? Baptism is, on the one hand, a death; and on the other hand, a resurrection.
When you go into the water, it means, “From now on, I am dead with Christ.” Since I have died, I must be buried and put out of sight. Then, by the grace of God, I come out of the water and rise in resurrection with Jesus Christ.
It is no longer I who live; it is Christ. Brothers and sisters, do you realize that you have not only left the world behind you and received Christ as your Head, but you have died to yourself?
You give up your right. You no longer live by yourself; you live by Christ. You give your right to Christ and allow Him to live Himself out through you, changing you to be like Him.
That is why baptism is so important. If you are in a heathen country and believe in the Lord Jesus, the world may still consider you one of them. But once you are baptized, they know that you no longer belong to them; you belong to Christ.
This is the beginning of discipleship. Then you are in a position to be taught by Christ and to learn everything that our Lord Jesus has said. The Lord Himself will be with you.
I do not know how much baptism means to you, but as far as I am concerned, it was truly the beginning of my spiritual life.
I was born in a Christian family. My father was a Methodist pastor, and he loved the Lord. We had family worship every night. Our father gathered all the children together and read the Bible to us.
After I was saved, people began to tell me that I needed to be baptized. I said, “I was already baptized. My father baptized me when I was a baby.”
I refused to be immersed. But as I read the Bible, I discovered that the Word teaches that one must believe and then be baptized, and that baptism is by immersion.
I knew it in my heart, but I would not do it. When my friends tried to persuade me, I argued with them, until they simply gave me up.
The difficulty was not that I did not know I needed to be baptized. The difficulty was that it was not convenient for me. I thought, “If I am immersed, what will happen to my father? I do not want to hurt him.”
Then, suddenly, for the first time, I heard a voice. Whether I heard it audibly or in my heart, I do not know. But the word came clearly to me: “He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me.”
That word was so powerful that I immediately yielded. I said, “Lord, if You want me to do that, I will do it.”
I went downstairs and knocked on the door of the brother who lived next door. He knew me. I asked him to baptize me. He asked, “Does your father know?” I said, “No.” The next day, I was baptized.
Why do I say this? Because this was the beginning of my spiritual life. Before that, I read the Bible every day and was zealous to preach the gospel in the country places, but I could not understand the Bible. There was no light and no revelation.
But after that, it seemed as though heaven opened. The Lord began to show me one thing after another—what His will was and what He wanted me to follow.
Brothers and sisters, discipleship is not to be discipled to any man. You may have brothers and sisters who know the Lord more than you do, and they may be able to help you spiritually.
But you are not discipled to any man, no matter how spiritual that person may be. No man is perfect. If you are discipled to a man, then one day, when you discover that your master is not perfect, it will affect your faith.
Thank God for brothers and sisters who help us, but they should help us to Christ, not to themselves. We are disciples of Christ.
Why did the Lord say, “Take My yoke upon you”? In the old days, when one plowed, an animal was put under a yoke so that it could be guided as it pulled the plow.
But if the animal had not been broken, it would not listen while plowing. That is why the farmer had an instrument called a goad. When the animal did not listen, he used the goad, not to hurt it, but to remind it that it could not go its own way.
After the animal had been trained, it would follow the direction of the farmer.
Our Lord Jesus said, “Take My yoke upon you.” Our Lord was never under the yoke of sin, but while He was on earth, He was under the yoke of His Father.
You remember His whole life. He always said, in effect, “What is My Father’s will? I can do nothing of Myself. I can say nothing except what the Father gives Me to say.”
Our Lord Jesus was, if I may say it, a tame animal under the yoke. He followed the Father and did the work of the Father according to the Father’s will.
When an untamed animal was yoked together with a tame animal, the tame animal was stronger. If the untamed animal wanted to go its own way, the tame animal would pull it back.
Gradually, the wild one learned from the tame one, until it too could be used by the master.
Dear brothers and sisters, the Lord Jesus is calling us to be His disciples. He Himself became the model disciple of God. He was the perfect Man, and He wants us to be yoked with Him and learn of Him.
He is meek and lowly in heart. As our soul is broken, we will lay down before Christ, and then we will fulfill God’s purpose.
Are you being yoked with Christ? This is the only way to learn of Christ. If you are not yoked with Christ, then you are not learning of Christ.
You may try to serve God, but actually you may be serving your own ideas. Brothers and sisters, we need to be yoked with Christ.
You may say, “Is this not very difficult?” Listen: “My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”
Why is it easy? It is not by your power; it is by His power and His life.
Our Lord Jesus is not after a great multitude. Very often, great multitudes followed Him. If great multitudes followed you, how would you feel? You would feel great.
But whenever great multitudes followed the Lord, He said, “If any man cometh unto Me, and hateth not his own father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. Whosoever doth not bear his own cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple.”
Even in Chinese translation, translators have hesitated to translate the word hate, because hate has a very bad connotation in our minds. But our natural emotions are fallen and disordered.
We naturally hate what we should love and love what we should hate. The Lord wants to purify our emotions.
We should love our parents, but with the love of God. That is real love—not loving our parents with our natural, fallen love.
That is why the Lord uses such strong words. Even our love and our hatred must be purified.
When people whom you love try to prevent you from loving God, what will you do? Will you follow man, or will you follow God?
That is your cross. You find these two feelings crossing one another. Are you willing to lay down your own feeling and please God by obeying Him?
Brothers and sisters, we must deny ourselves, because this is a fallen self. It will not listen to God. It needs to go to the cross and be put to death.
The qualification for discipleship is very simple: deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow the Lord. That is discipleship.
Our Lord Jesus used two parables. If you are building a tower, before you begin, sit down and count the cost. Are you willing to pay enough to finish the tower?
If you are not willing, and you lay the foundation but cannot complete it, people will mock you and say, “This man began to build, and was not able to finish.”
Or consider a king going to war. If the enemy comes with twenty thousand men and this king has only ten thousand, he must consider whether he is able to fight. If not, he must seek terms of peace.
Unless you forsake everything and put everything into it, you will not be able to finish. To be a disciple, you must put in everything. You cannot hold back anything.
The tower speaks of testimony. It is the testimony of Jesus that you are building. The battle speaks of spiritual warfare. Unless you are willing to pay every cost for Christ, you will always lose.
Discipleship is absolute. It is an absolute surrender. Then you will find that the Lord works in you.
I always remember a story about a young preacher who was very brilliant and successful. One day, two young men visited him: C. T. Studd and Charles Studd. They were well-known men from Cambridge.
It was November, and November in Scotland is rather chilly. Early one morning, the preacher noticed that the light was still on in the room where C. T. Studd was staying.
He waited and waited. Finally, he knocked at the door. A voice said, “Come in.”
He found C. T. Studd sitting there, searching the Scriptures. He said, “I am looking for any commandment that I may obey.”
That touched the preacher very much. Some people search the Scriptures only for promises. Some people are too lazy even to search the Scriptures. But have you consecrated yourself to God?
Have you really sat down, counted everything in your life, and handed it over to Christ?
The preacher went to the Lord and began to hand over one thing after another. In a vision, as it were, he saw Christ coming, and he handed Christ a bundle containing all that he possessed.
But then he said, “If You allow me to keep just a small part, I promise You that I will serve You with double energy.”
The Lord began to turn away. In desperation, he cried, “Lord, make me willing to be willing.”
That is a famous word: “Lord, make me willing to be willing.” The Lord told him, “If I am not Lord of all, I am not Lord at all.”
The Lord came and dealt with him. It took time for the Lord to clear everything that was his own.
It is costly, but when you yield to the Lord, He gains everything. How do we live as Christians? Do we still live by ourselves, or do we live unto Christ?
Dear Lord, we praise You. Thank You that Your yoke is easy and Your burden is light. Deliver us from living by ourselves. Bring us into full surrender to Christ, that Your glorious purpose may be fulfilled in us. Amen.