The Marks Of A True Follower

What motivates you?

What motivates you?

To get up in the morning

Go to work

go fishing

Go to the store

Go to school

to vote

What Character trait do you have?

How do you feel about?

money

work

family

abortion

gossip

bills

What are you capable of?

A Follower of Jesus

Luke 9:23-26

Introduction to the text

23 Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross [b]daily, and follow Me.

Jesus had just finished a large portion of His mission.

Healing, casting out demons, reproduction fish, raising the dead, controlling the winds and seas, teaching and preaching the kingdom of God.

By this point He has gathered with Him a large following. But not everyone who walks with Jesus is going to follow in His foot steps.

Jesus now gives a strong word to anyone who wants to follow Him.

The word come after Me is one that literally means to walk behind, so He is talking about anyone who will walk in the foot steps of Jesus.

He gives them a short but very deep word.

“Let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”

Jesus is very clear here that in order to follow Him one must first “deny himself”

When I was working through the commentary and reading up on other ministers view points of this passage all of them seem to have focused on taking up the cross and following Jesus. But I think for today’s day and age we have missed the point.

50 years ago everyone knew what “deny himself” meant. 100 years ago they knew what that meant. but today I ask you this simple question.

What does it mean to deny yourself?

The biblical meaning is this “To have NO CLAIM of RELATIONSHIP or KNOWLEDGE of One’s self.”

what does that mean?

it means that you must not have any claims to anything that would benefit yourself

it means that you must not have any claims to your own capabilities, character, feelings, and motivations.

that all seems strange. but that is what Jesus said.

Jesus said, if you want to follow Me. You must let go of anything that will benefit yourself through your own motivations, feelings, character, or capabilities.

but not just that, Jesus then said you must pick up your cross daily.

Jesus said that not only must you let go of anything that will benefit yourself you must be willing to pick up your cross.

The cross was a form a death sentence at the time of Christ. What He is saying is you must be willing to lay down your life for the sake of Christ. Not just in death, but in every aspect of your life and that can be a painful way.

Lets look at verse 24.

Selfish vs. Selfless

24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.

24 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.

Shortly after Jesus says this He meets a few people who want to follow Him but they have not fully understood the cost of following Jesus.

the first man said I will follow you. But Jesus said that He has no place to rest His head. He has no home on earth. This man was looking for a way to follow Jesus but still have one foot in the world.

This man thought that he could follow Jesus but still have an insurance policy in case things got bad. Well at least I still have a home to go back too.

The second man said he would follow but first wanted to bury his father. Jesus said to him, let the dead bury their own. He was telling this man I have no time to wait for you there is much work to do.

Jesus might have been come off as harsh but when we look, Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem and did not have time to wait a week or two for this man to bury his father.

the last man said I will follow you but I need to go home first to take care of final business. Jesus responded with no one is fit for the kingdom if they put their hands on the plow and look back. If he wants to follow Jesus he must leave his former life behind him.

This last man was already following Jesus but wanted to go home to clear up a last few things. Like the bachelor party before marriage he wanted to make sure his legacy was set, he wanted to make sure that the business was cleaned up first. But Jesus said no, you cant start walking this path and just leave to have make sure things are good. What is more important the kingdom of God or your own kingdom?

Jesus wanted to make sure that everyone knew that once you start this path there is no going back to the old life style, you must be willing to follow Jesus even if its going to cost you everything.

For some it has. Jesus warned his followers that: some cities will reject their witness, some households will become divided, there will be controversies over church leadership, they will suffer persecution in synagogues and prisons.

by becoming followers of Christ Jesus these things may happen and we are to let go of our claims to self benefit to live for Christ

Jesus goes on to say in Verse 25

25 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?

25 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?

This question rings very true for many people today in western culture. Its a word we dont want to hear. We strive so hard today to gain the world and in the process we lose our souls.

(Story of Ananias & his wife)

A good example of this was very early in the church. A man from Cypress had given a very large sum of money to the Church to benefit the homeless, widowed, and orphans.

In the next few passage we see a husband and wife wanting to do the same by selling a large portion of land and at some point during the sale they decided to keep some of the money back for themselves.

They had gone to the Peter declaring this was all the money from the sale. But Peter was told by the Holy Spirit that they had lied about the sale money and they had kept some of it back. They were struck down by God that very moment when they had lied to Holy Spirit.

Keeping the money was not an issue, it was trying to lie to the Holy Spirit that was the problem. They could have simply kept some money back and told the truth that this was only some of the money from the sale. But they were more concerned about the worldly gains then the Kingdom of God. For it they lost their lives.

Having money set aside is not an issue, but its when the love of money is greater than our love of God. That is when we try to gain the whole world and lose our souls in the process. Jesus told His followers, that nothing of this world can benefit anyone past this life.

Jesus told him to follow the law perfectly. The young man had done so but Jesus pointed out that he was missing one thing. To give away everything he owned to the poor and follow Jesus.

Jesus told him that in order to follow he must first deny himself of everything and pick up his cross. The young man had gone home sad because he was very rich.

Jesus made the comment afterward how hard it is for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. It would be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle.

But that is not all that Jesus is saying here in this passage. Jesus is telling his followers that nothing of this world can benefit anyone past this life.

however, most people today work their entire lives pay check to pay check trying so hard to get the latest thing.

be it a new TV, a new smart phone, a new car or truck, a new house, a new computer, a new tablet, some money in the bank.

For what? you cant take it with you.

Some people work so hard at being the best sports player to get the big bucks, the MVP award, the rookie of the year award, the championship ring or trophy. “The worlds best”

but at the end of their lives its worth nothing but a long past year winner. they benefit nothing from it after this life.

and yet some people work very hard at doing good for others some take up politics to gain a name, some become spokes persons for large compaines, some become actors, some become scinetices looking for the next great break through.

But if all of this is done for the benefit of self. Money, fame, a name to go down in history. its does not benefit the person who had spent their entire life in pursuit of things that will pass away.

however its not all about money its also about acceptance.

26 Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

26 For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels.

Jesus finishes up His bold statement one last warning.

Whoever is ashamed of Me and My words. This a strong statement, lets just take a moment to look at the word ashamed.

Oxford English Dictionary defines the word as: Feelings associated with failure, public exposure, disgrace, embarrassment, social rejection, ridicule, and dishonor.

if someone does not deny themselves and follow Jesus at some point their claim to self relationship will kick in and they will become ashamed of Jesus Himself or His words.

fear of public exposure

fear of disgrace

embarrassment

fear or anger toward social rejection

fear of ridicule

and dishonor.

Jesus is clear that if anyone feels this way toward Jesus or His words will find them selves in a bad way toward Jesus and the kingdom of heaven. If you think its bad now to be socially rejected just imagine for a moment being divinely rejected in front of the entirety of the heavenly body.

Do you see now the importance of deny yourself and take up your cross daily?

Following Christ is not some social club. Its a life style, its rejecting any claims on your self benefit for the sake of Christ.

Now that may seem hard to do. I know this because in my study I had spent days pondering and mediating on the meaning of self denial.

How can we deny our self's?

The key to this is found in Verse 23.

“If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself”

The Marks of a True Follower

1. Desire Christ

Desire Christ

First we must have a desire to follow in the footsteps of Christ. It’s when we Hear the Word of God spoken, we hear the truth of Christ we hear about eternal life, freedom from sin, and the power of God.

When we hear the truth spoken we start to get a desire to follow Him.

Now, Wanting to follow after Jesus is great! I want you to want to follow Christ. I want everyone to desire that.

That leads to the next step in wanting to follow Christ. This is where many people will fail, obedience.

2. Deny Yourself

This next step is one that everyone must take if they want to follow Jesus, they must have a stronger desire a stronger want a longing for Jesus that is greater than our desire for this world.

A desire so strong that you would be willing to die for it.

When you have such a desire to follow Christ then you must be willing to verbally renounce knowledge or relationship of yourself through prayer

Remember that “unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it!”

Be willing to lay down your life for Christ, then....

When you deny your Character you reflect the Character of Christ

When you deny your feelings you reflect the feelings of Christ

When you deny your capabilities you become capable of anything through Christ

When you deny your motivations you become motivated by the power of the Holy Spirit

The 120 who gathered on the Day of Pentecost had laid aside their dreams, ambitions, goals, and agendas. This created the atmosphere where God had made His presence known.

Unless we deny our self's and lay aside everything, eventually agendas that were hidden away deep inside yourself will surface. Hidden motives will cause our relationship with God to become an inch deep, only surface level.

its when you are willing to take that step toward obedience to Christ, when you understand the gravity of the request do deny yourself and from the depths of your heart you cry out to God, truly saying that you are willing to let go of your own life.

only then can you pick up your cross.

only then can you pick up your cross.

3. Pick Up Your Cross

This last step is one that Luke says we must do each day. Its a reminder that we are no longer alive to the flesh. We are alive in Christ. Its a reminder that our time here on earth is one that is short.

A reminder that there will be times when we will be socially rejected. We will face hard times at work, at home, at school, in our towns.

A reminder that even in our own house holds we may face times of persecution from people we love .

A reminder that its God’s will we follow not our own.