Week 20: The Cost of Discipleship

Luke 9:23–27 | Guest Teacher: Wes Mills

Jesus’ invitation to salvation is about more than being rescued from the consequences of sin. It is an invitation into life with God, where we are continually being transformed into the people we were created to become.

Peter’s story shows us what this kind of discipleship actually looks like. He encounters Jesus, follows him, falls away, returns, fails spectacularly, is restored, and continues to be confronted and formed years later. Again and again, Jesus meets Peter with the same invitation: “Follow me.”

That means Jesus’ call to “take up your cross daily” isn’t a one-time decision. The Spirit continually leads us into places we might not choose for ourselves, exposing what needs to die so something new can come alive.

We want resurrection, but we often resist the path of crucifixion. We want to bear fruit without tending the soil. We want God’s work in our lives, but we would prefer for Him to accomplish it our way.

Yet the pattern Jesus gives us is death before resurrection, surrender before abundance, the seed buried before it bears fruit.

What if some of the places where it feels like things are falling apart are actually places where the Spirit is doing His deepest work?

Taking up our cross means practicing this pattern in the ordinary moments of our lives: dying to ourselves in conflict, parenting, apologies, work, self-control, patience, relationships, and countless unseen decisions.

Resurrection is God’s plan for the world—not a woundless world, but a resurrected one.

Jesus’ invitation remains: Follow me. Follow Him into surrender. Follow Him into the places you might rather not go. Follow Him through death and into resurrection, trusting that in losing your life to Jesus, you discover the abundant life He intended for you all along.