Say goodbye!
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Luke 14:25-33
Luke 14:25-33
Good morning, church!
Last week, we looked at this difficult passage from Luke 14. This is one of Jesus most challenging statements about being His disciple or following Him.
In this passage, you will see the harsh statement, “cannot be my disciple” 3 times.
I think, one of the things that hits me the most in these passages we have been reading over the past few weeks, is
one, Jesus was very clear on what it cost to follow Him as His disciple.
Two, Jesus wants you to count that cost.
Three, if that person wasn’t willing to pay that cost, He would let them walk away.
I think that is very humbling and makes me want to strive all the more to follow Him. The absolute last thing that I could stand would be to make Jesus let me walk away...
I think that why it is absolutely necessary that we read these passages and ask ourselves, personally, “Am I really a disciple?” “or would Jesus have let me walk?”
I believe that is a question that only you can answer.
So, we will keep asking the questions.
Am I really a disciple like the ones that Jesus called?
Am I a disciple worth duplicating in the Great Commission?
Jesus does not want you to be uninformed and neither do I.
Let’s read our passage for this morning and break it down.
Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
Two things jump out at us right off the bat.
One, last week, we talked about this, is that Jesus is not a con artist. He does not want you to make a decision and not know what the cost is.
There is not supposed to be any hidden cost that you find out latter. Jesus was very upfront about the fact that following Him would cost you and He says to count those cost before following Him.
Like a man building a tower and a king going off to war, make sure you have enough to finish the project!
That is why Jesus is upfront about the cost of following Him.
Second thing that jumps out is the phrase “He cannot be my disciple”. I think Jesus is drawing a line and saying you must be willing to pay this price to follow me. Know that beforehand! Know that before you choose!
And each time that He says that He addresses another cost. There are three in this passage.
Last week, we talked about Jesus’ need for our unrivaled love.
How we must observe the first and greatest command and the second one just like it!
There cannot be any humans that we love more that Him, including family, friends and ourselves!
He must be our first love.
This week, we are going to look at verse 27.
Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
Matthew’s account of this says,
And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
Goodness, we don’t talk about this do we.
Jesus obviously highly values the need for someone to take up his cross to follow Him!
4 weeks ago, we talked about Luke 9. Would you go ahead and turn there? There is something that we need to see there.
We talked about taking up our cross briefly 4 weeks, ago but I’m afraid I missed something that we need to see and understand about taking up your cross.
And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?
So, this passage says if you want to follow Jesus, you have to deny yourself, or you must die to your desires or your wants and surrender them to Jesus, right?
It means putting what you desire AFTER what He desires.
It means putting His commands OVER what you want to do.
It means deny your impulses. Die to them.
Right?
That’s what we talked about 4 weeks ago and that is often how this verse is explained.
But what if that is just scratching the surface on what this verse means?
What if we have lessened the meaning of the verse? To simply meaning metaphorically? Just die to your desires and that’s enough.
I’m not saying that is not true. Its absolutely true!
To follow Jesus means you have died to self, you have been crucified with Christ. You no longer life but the life that you live is through Jesus Christ.
But what if there is just simply apart of what it means?
What if its an actual call to die?
Like physically?
What if Jesus is saying, you must be willing to put yourself out there in obedience to my will and someone might actually kill you for it?! Someone will actually end your physical life because of your obedience?
What if Jesus is saying that in order to follow me, that while we are relatively safe here in America for now, maybe He is asking you to go somewhere NOT SAFE!
Endless men and women, understood that the call to follow Jesus is a call to be willing to physically die while dying to our desires!
Over 2000 years worth of Christians understood that the willingness to die for the Gospel of Jesus Christ wasn’t a call to the specifically “called” but it was THE call to ALL Christ followers!
Honestly, church, we have misunderstood the word “calling”. We want to say “Well, I’m not called to missions.” “The Lord hasn’t called me to put myself at risk physically for the gospel.”
Are we reading the same Bible?
The great commission is for all of us and it says to make disciples of ALL NATIONS!
Jesus says that if you value your life and fight to try to keep it will lose it!
But whoever loses his life for my sake, saves it!
Do not fight Jesus in an attempt to save your own life!
Make no mistake, church, the call to follow Jesus does not simply mean to set aside our desires and preferences, but it is also a call to be willing to die physically if necessary to be obedient to the Great Commission!
Every single one of these disciples knew that and saw it through to death!
This is why the first one in this passage is to love God more than everyone else, even family, friends and yourself!
When I was 15, a young girl named Cassie Bernal was asked the simple question with a gun to her forehead.
“Do you believe in God?”
She could have lied and saved her life possibly.
She could have thought about all that she could have gained by surviving and doing more if she would have only denied Him.
But she told the truth trusting in Jesus. And she meet Jesus that day, in Columbine, Colorado, because she was willing to pay the cost of following Jesus.
She was not ashamed of Jesus and she the Son of Man was not ashamed of her as she entered into heaven.
I remember the impact that had on my life and has had on my life over the years..
Am I willing to die for the sake of following Jesus?
This willingness to die is echoed throughout the NT.
Paul writing to the church in Philippi tells them,
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.
In chapter 3,
that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,
to follow Jesus, in so many countries in the world, today, is a death sentence.
Are we willing to pay the price of our physically life if necessary?
Jesus said, count the cost. Are you willing to pay it to follow me?
But what if there is even more to cross?
I know, what could be more that being willing to die?
There is more and honestly, it might be harder than death in some cases...
Back in our main passage in Luke 9, Jesus tells us what He was going to have to go through on the cross.
But what we have missed is the cross was not just a symbol of death.
Just look 2 verses ahead of our passage from earlier.
And he strictly charged and commanded them to tell this to no one, saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”
Jesus said, that He must suffer many things and be rejected.
The cross was not just a death sentence.
Death was just the final product of the cross.
Suffering and rejection came first!
Just read the end of any of the gospels!
He suffered beating, whippings, insults, abuse, false accusations, mocking and all kinds of suffering!
Just think about the cross itself! The fact of being nailed to wood and being forced to hang from those nails for hours and hours. Fighting and pulling yourself up on those nails just to breath!
There is not doubt that the cross is also a sign of suffering!
Jesus suffered physically, in physically abuse and the loss of everything. Remember, they stripped Him bear and gambled for His clothing.
He also suffered mentally! Name calling, false accusations, unfair trials and abandonment.
All of those things were the product of sin in those people’s lives. Sin, pride, hatred, causes these people to persecute Him and cause Him to suffer.
Apart of Jesus’ willingness to bear the sins of the world started with bearing the sins of those beating Him and causing Him to suffer and He still cried out for the Father to forgive them!
Apart of Jesus taking up His cross was to bear the burden of the sins of those who were persecuting Him!
And we are called to do the same thing in taking up our crosses!
At the sins of those around us, if you sell out for Jesus and are willing to do whatever He asks you, make no mistake there are people in this world that will cause you to suffer from the sin that is within them!
And we are called to bear it! We are called to be willing to suffer at the hands of sinners persecution just like He did!
Suffering both physically and mentally!
Sin in other’s lives will cause you to loose jobs, be insulted, be pushed around, to be falsely accused and you will suffer at the hands of even those you love for the cause of following Jesus
and we MUST be willing to walk through that suffering like Jesus!
A part of bearing our cross is to be willing to suffer at the hands of sinners like Jesus did and still call out to God to forgive THEM!
Stephen did it!
Again, this truth is all throughout the NT.
and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.
In order to take up your cross, you must be willing to silently suffer like the example of Jesus Christ.
We cannot fall into “woe is me” suffering for Christ!
In fact, the disciples rejoiced in their suffering for the sake of Jesus!
The disciples are preaching the name of Jesus and the religious leaders of the day beat them and tell them to stop teaching His name. Did they stop? No. Did they fight back? No.
They rejoiced!
and when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus.
Jesus warned them it would happen, they willing allow it to happen, they rejoiced that it happened and they kept on doing what Jesus commanded them to do.
THAT is what we must also be willing to do for the sake of following Jesus.
Candace has a saying from something she read, “Those who love you will so often abhor you.”
You must be willing to suffer all kinds of things for the sake of following Jesus.
But you will also be rejected.
A close friend, Judas, betrayed Him.
His disciples fled when He was arrested.
Peter denied Him three times right in front of His face.
Those who just a week earlier were shouting Hosanna and now shouting Crucify Him!
Think about this, those who were making the sacrifices to God on the alter in the temple where the same ones offering God in the flesh on the alter of the cross!
If you follow Jesus the way that He calls us to, you will also be rejected by others, specifically those you love.
You will be called radical. Extreme.
You will stop being invited places.
You will be pushed away from those seeking to cover of hid their sin.
Your true disciple’s life will stand as a reminder to those who are lukewarm that they are not all in with Jesus.
Therefore, they will reject you.
Lost and saved will reject you.
Jesus bore this burden and so must you.
The cross is a sign of death, physical and metaphorically.
But it is also a sign of suffering and rejection.
I pray that we don’t overly simplify scripture.
Yes, the call to follow Jesus in taking up our cross is an inner death, suffering and rejection.
But it is more than that. It is a call to physically die, suffer and be rejected if He leads you to.
You have to know that!
(Ask the band to come up)
Look throughout all of these passages, that we have been looking at over the past few weeks, I think that the last verse in our original passage sums it all up.
So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
That word renounce means to take leave of, or say goodbye to and leave, to forsake all that one possesses.
Church, I’ll go back to something that we said from the very beginning.
We must be willing to say to Jesus, I give you everything. I give it all up for you.
My home, my comfort, my money, my past, my present, my future, my family, my friends, my life, everything!
I renounce it! I say goodbye to it all because you are worth giving it all up for!
You are worthy of the sacrifice of everything that I own and everything that I am!
If you can say that to Him without and “except” or a “But not that”, then you are ready to be His true disciple!
You will be a disciple worth duplicating! You will be willing a life that is an example to others!
You will stand out in the world and in the Christian community!
But He is absolutely worth it.
Again in Philippians 3, Paul list all of the good things in His life and counts them all as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake, He suffered the loss of all things and counted them as rubbish, in order that He might gain Christ!
Is He worth it to you?
Do you consider Jesus as worthy of sacrificing, renouncing everything for?
Again, it will be really, really tough to say yes, if you are only looking at what you are giving up. That’s why Paul is reminding you that you get Jesus!!
If you hear that and think, He is not really worth it… then keep on walking...
But if you consider yourself warned about the cost and you see Jesus as worth the cost, then it is time for you to stand and follow Him.
Think about invitation.
Not between you and me, this is between you and Jesus!
