Discipleship and Lordship on Luke 19:1-10 by Andreas D - April 26 2026

1. Recap from last week

   1. a. Mike started a new series on discipleship.

      b. Jesus calls us to be his disciples as:

      1. i. Followers of Jesus 

         ii. Apprentices of Jesus 

         iii. To become like Him

         
         

2. Discipleship and Lordship

   a. What is Lordship and how does it relate to discipleship?

   
   

   My special interest in the topic. Share from my own story:

   a. Saved at 14 at a youth camp, I had an understanding and desire of Jesus now being in charge of my life. 

   b. Faith during most of my teenage years was characterized by highs and lows, depending on when I felt I needed Jesus the most in my life.

   c. Late teenage years my faith became a bigger part of my life. I became the leader of my youth group and I became more dependent on Jesus and my relationship with Him grew as a result of that.

   d. At the same time, many of my Christian friends started slowly walking away from Jesus. 

   e. Today only a few of my old Christian friends follow Jesus.

   f. I believe what happened to both many of my friends and me during those years was a result of how we dealt with the issue of Lordship. 

   
   

3. The Bible talks about Jesus being Lord, what does it mean? 

   1. Not talking about a mere title e.g. Lord Halifax

      b. He is the supreme ruler/authority of the universe

      1. i. Phil. 2:9-11

         ii. Col. 1:15-18

      c. In the OT some of the most common names for God are:

   i. Adonai - Lord or master

   ii. Yahweh - LORD in your Bible. 

   
   

4. It’s not a new concept, it’s throughout the entire Bible, but it’s applied to Jesus in the NT.

   Jesus as our Lord and Saviour

   
   

5. a. I grew up with a huge focus on Jesus as our Savior dying on the cross for our sake, forgiving our sins, reconciling us to God making it possible for us to enter into a relationship with Him now and spend an eternity with Him, go to heaven when we die. 

   b. The emphasis of “saved by grace” and that salvation is a gift from God we can receive was preached faithfully.

   There was not a big focus of Jesus being our Lord.

   Here’s the thing, If He is supreme ruler of the universe, He is worthy of our worship and to be the supreme ruler of our lives as well.

   Jesus rules by love and there’s no love without freedom.

   a. He is not going to make us, twist our arm, to make Himself Lord of our lives. 

   b. But it is what we’re created for, to be in a loving relationship with Him and where he is Lord. 

   c. The alternative to Jesus being Lord of our lives, is that we ourselves or let someone be the ruler of and that is not what we’re created for. 

   
   

   Story of Zacchaeus – Let’s see what we can learn from his life. 

   a. Read the story from Luke 19:1-10

   b. 3 things I want us to consider: 

   
   

A. Zacchaeus was ready to meet Jesus.

1. He had probably heard about Jesus and wanted to see him, so he did what he could by climbing up into the tree.

2. Judging by his response to Jesus, we can tell he was ready to turn away from his sin towards Jesus as his Lord. 

3. He had already counted the cost of making Jesus Lord. Although Zaccheaus hadn’t acted on his promise, Jesus saw his genuine heart and proclaimed his salvation by faith, just like Abraham.

   
   

B. Jesus wanted to meet Zaccheaus. 

1. He did the unexpected, stopped to talk to him and invited himself to stay at his house.

2. He defied all cultural expectations by inviting himself into someone’s house who was hated by everyone. 

3. Everyone grumbled because Jesus chose to meet with a traitor of the nation. (verse 7)

4. It would be similar to collaborating and getting rich from the invasion of Nazi Germany in Europe in the 1940’s. 

5. Jesus didn’t care, He loved him and wanted to be in a relationship with him, despite his past and what others thought of him.

C. Zaccheaus was willing to become uncomfortable to be obedient to Jesus.

1. When he says he will pay everyone he cheated 4 times as much back he is actually going beyond the expected ⅕ extra he was required to pay according to the law (Lev. 1:1-5)It’s uncomfortable to face people you cheated, apologize and pay them back. 

2. And adding to that, giving 50% of what you own to the poor, most likely had serious consequences for him in terms of living standard etc. 

   
   

Application for us:

1. Zacchaeus was ready to meet Jesus. 

2. Have you counted the cost of making Jesus Lord of your life? 

3. As I shared earlier, I had a limited understanding of what it would mean for me to have Jesus running my life, and that’s okay. 

4. Jesus is waiting for you. 

5. Jesus wanted to meet Zaccheaus.

6. No matter whether you already are a follower of Jesus or not, He wants to meet you. He is much more interested in him than we are in Him. He wants to be our Lord because that’s the type of relationship we’re created for. 

7. Lordship without relationship leads to legalism.

8. Lordship within a relationship leads to the type of friendship Jesus invites us into in Jn. 15:14 when he says “You are my friends if you do what I command you”. 

9. Zaccheaus was willing to become uncomfortable to be obedient to Jesus.

10. Jesus doesn’t ask us to become uncomfortable for the sake of feeling uncomfortable. He calls us to follow him because he loves us and that often means there’s some uncomfortability involved, because it goes against our old nature of running our own lives and serving ourselves.

    
    

What is Jesus calling you to do today? 

• It can be in the big decisions or the small decisions. E.g. I felt Holy Spirit wanted me to pray for a student who got injured recently. I said yes I’ll do it, and I asked Him to give me a good opportunity to do so. I felt uncomfortable, but that was just my own insecurity.

• Practicing saying “yes” to Jesus in small ways enables us to say “yes” when he speaks to us about bigger things.

• Maybe you have something that’s nagging you that you know you need to deal with. E.g. my story about the big bins in my house that belonged to someone else. Saying “yes” to the nudging to make things right brings freedom!