Noblesse Oblige by Scott Applegate
This book was released by a pastor & author from Westminster, Colorado in 2009. Scott is the pastor of Novation Church, a non-denominational bible-first church that serves the community each and every day, spreading the Gospel through practical works and teaching. We will publish each chapter weekly, and encourage you to read it and digest it each week in order to search for and live God’s true calling on your life. Through this series you will learn to search for your Noble: Living, Purpose, Vision, Mission, Ability, Faith, Action, Assignments, and Death.
“Discipleship to Jesus is both a one-time birth and an ongoing death.” J. Stott
“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” (Matthew 16:24-25)
Chapter 9: Noble Death
In this passage Jesus gives us a look into what life will and should be like for the person who is ready to follow Him. To me, this is one of the most amazing and frightening passages in the Bible. Peter had just declared that Jesus was the awaited Messiah, the Savior and Lord of all. Throughout the Gospels, Peter continually declares his allegiance to Christ. It is no wonder he was the one who declares with great zeal “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” and “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.”
I can relate to Peter’s zeal. Peter gets in the way of himself a lot. If you read the verses just prior to Christ’s call to deny yourself, you will see Jesus telling His disciples that He must suffer and die at the hands of the religious leaders. That is where Peter steps in and tells Jesus that this will never happen on his watch! Jesus rebukes him and tells him that in his zeal he did not have in mind the things of God, but of self! That is where Jesus declares:
“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” (Matthew 16:24-25)
Jesus’ call is filled with startling honesty. He never tries to bribe people to follow him by the offer of an easy life. Notice He did not say: “take up your easy chair.” Jesus never calls us to do anything that He was not prepared to do himself. Whatever He asks us to face He has already faced himself.
Jesus makes an amazing and seemingly paradoxical statement when He declares:
“If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will find true life.” (Mark 8:35-36 NLT)
He says if we will lose our lives in Him we will find real life. He bids us to die to ourselves so we can truly live the life He intends for us. In other words, if we are to fulfill our noblesse oblige it will require us to learn how to die:
Die to yourself “Deny yourself.”
Denying yourself is not necessarily denying yourself the luxuries of life. Denying yourself is not forsaking a game of golf to work at the homeless shelter or avoiding donuts and eating granola. Obviously denying yourself might mean to deny yourself the luxuries of life, but if that is all Jesus means He hasn’t set the bar very high. There are many people who deny Christ that are better at denying themselves pleasure than most Christians. For example, in the Buddhist religion the goal is to deny yourself the pleasures of life and literally learn how to not desire anything at all. That is not the goal of the Christian life.
Denying yourself in the sense that Christ is speaking of is giving Jesus complete control of your life. This means that He is in control of my words, my relationships, my actions, my money, my future and my decisions, “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” (Colossians 3:3 NIV) In order to fulfill my noble obligation I must surrender all I have to Christ. That means He calls the shots in my life not me. This will affect every area of my life.
Die to your agenda “Take up your cross.”
When Jesus tells His followers to “take up their cross” He is telling them to give up their agendas and accept God’s agenda for their life. In other words, He is telling His followers to take up their mission.
In Matthew 16:23, Jesus told Peter:
“…you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”
Jesus was rebuking Peter for having in mind his own agenda. His agenda was obviously not God’s. What is amazing about this sequence is that Peter’s agenda seems admirable. However without realizing it, Peter was being used by Satan to tempt Jesus to lose focus of His mission. The cross was Christ’s mission. This temptation continued to haunt Him, as He got closer to the cross. The night before He died on the cross He prayed:
“My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” (Matthew 26:39 NIV)
In dying to our agendas and taking up our mission we will be tempted to lose focus and be swayed by selfishness and comfort. If you are going to fulfill your mission, it will cost you everything. It cost Jesus His life. Jesus did not dictate to God what was going to happen with His life, He fully surrendered Himself to the plan of His Father. Rick Warren sums it up best when he writes:
“To fulfill your mission will require you to abandon your agenda and accept God’s agenda for your life. You can’t just tack it on to all the other things you’d like to do with your life…You yield your rights, expectations, dreams, plans, and ambitions to him…You hand God a blank sheet with your name signed at the bottom and tell him to fill in the details.”
Salvation is free; however, following Jesus costs us everything. The Good News of Jesus is that God sent His Son to live and die in our place. He lived a perfect life meaning He 57 loved God perfectly and loved His neighbor as Himself perfectly, thus He never sinned. However, He willingly stood in our place dying on the cross for our sin, sin He had never known or committed. In the Old Testament we are told:
“If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God…” (Deuteronomy 28:1-2 NIV)
The scripture goes on to list blessings for obedience. In the same chapter we read:
“However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you…” (Deuteronomy 28:15 NIV)
The chapter goes on to pronounce curse for disobedience. Did you notice the “ifs” in those Old Testament verses? Here is the beauty of the gospel: Jesus answered the “ifs” of the law. He lived in perfect obedience, and He paid the penalty for disobedience.
“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” (Galatians 3:13 NIV)
Salvation cost you and me nothing; it cost Jesus everything. However, following Jesus will cost you and me everything.
Die daily “Follow me”
When Jesus said, “follow me” He was not speaking of just a one-time event, but rather an ongoing process. Dying daily is a choice.
First, it is the choice of sacrifice over selfish ambition.
Secondly, it is choosing servanthood over power.
Thirdly, it is choosing the possibility of suffering over comfort.
The word risk is defined as the possibility of suffering. Erwin McManus points out that one of the grossest interpretations of Scripture is the saying: “the safest place on earth is the will of God.” Was that true for Jesus? Paul? Is it true today for the persecuted believers in Sudan? Jesus said if we are willing to lay down our comfort, power, and ambition for Him we will find real life.
Die to the temporal “lose your life for me”
The way we die to the temporal is to exchange it for the eternal. We need to train ourselves to see our temporary lives through the lenses of eternity. The phrase “American dream” has come to mean a life of comfort and prosperity. However, think of all the people in America’s short history that laid down their lives for the rest of us. Settling America cost many people their comfort, prosperity, and their lives. The phrase “American dream” originally meant finding freedom and opportunity.
That has changed in our day to demanding rights and abuse of freedom. We need to exchange the modern American dream for God’s dream and call on our lives. Jesus exchanged the temporal for the eternal:
“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2 NIV)
How Christ saw His life is a great lesson for us in living out the noblesse oblige. He saw His life as a short-term mission trip. Some people are called to be full-time missionaries. That means they will live their lives in another country, learning the language, learning the culture and planning on living amongst that people group for the rest of their lives. That nation becomes home, they take up residency there.
Short-term mission trips, on the other hand, are not like that. Short-term trips go to a specific group to accomplish a specific task.
I have been on several short-term mission trips. On those trips we have preached the gospel to many people. We have served churches, built buildings, brought food to hungry people and done many other noble things. I love seeing new cities and countries and experiencing new cultures. However, as much as I love overseas experiences, I love coming home. It is good to be home, in my bed, in my city, and eating the food I am accustomed to. To be honest, when I am overseas I get very homesick, and as enjoyable as those trips are-its not home. Like the old saying says:
“home is where the heart is.”
Is your heart in heaven? Do you see your life as a short-term mission trip? Will you live out your Noblesse Oblige in such a way that heaven will say of you the same as it said of those who have gone before us:
“All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country-a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them,” (Hebrews 11:13-16 NIV).
Life is short eternity is long. Life is temporal heaven is forever. Discipleship to Jesus means to learn how to live from Him in this life in such a way that our lives will have an impact on eternity.
My prayer for you is simple: May God grant you courage and faith as you follow Christ with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. May you be empowered by Him to 60 fulfill your noble obligation, your noblesse oblige in such a way that He receives all the glory and you receive eternal joy. In Jesus name, Amen.
Noble Questions to Ponder
How does discipleship to Jesus equate to noblesse oblige? In other words, how should discipleship to Christ impact your noble obligation?
Which part of dying: dying to self, your agenda, dying daily, or dying to the temporal seems to be the hardest for you? Why? Do the different aspects of dying seem to change over time?
What has touched you most in the study? What are you going to do about it?
Comment below about how thinking about death, freedom and where your home is makes you feel.
