The third part of Christ’s description of discipleship in Luke 9:23 is the command: "Follow me." We looked at this carefully earlier and do not need to repeat what was said. However, the challenge comes now in a slightly different way. Having spoken of self-denial and cross-bearing, which the first two points of this text present, we naturally find ourselves looking about for some motivation that will bring us to that kind of commitment.

Self-seeking is the opposite of self-denial, and the problem with self-seeking is that it has been the essence of sin from the beginning. It is what caused the fall of Satan. Satan said, "I want my way, and that means that I am going to displace God. I will rule the universe." God said that Satan would actually be brought low. Jesus said, "I will go down in self-denial. I will abase myself in order that others, those I love, might be lifted from sin to glory." As a result, God promised that Jesus Christ would be exalted. He would be given a name that is above every name, so that every tongue would confess that "Jesus is Lord."

In last week’s study I wrote that there is a fatal flaw in the professing church today, a lack of true discipleship. Discipleship is talked about, of course. There are scores of books about it, particularly about what is called "discipling" other people. Words are not the problem. It is the lack of the thing itself. But what are we to say about this next theme: the need for self-denial, expressed as "taking up the cross"? In this area it is not only the thing that is lacking. It is an area about which we do not even speak.

In the last years of the seventeenth century a great French aristocrat wrote a book on discipleship that has become a classic in this field. At one time the book was publicly burned in France. Yet it has also been received by many millions of Christians who have confessed it to be one of the most helpful books ever written. It was greatly loved by Fenelon, Count Zinzendorf, John Wesley, and Hudson Taylor. This aristocrat was a woman, one of the best-known women in church history. Her name: Madame Jeanne Guyon.