8 - Following Jesus
This morning we a continuing in our series called “Life According to Jesus” We are studying the commands of Jesus… Our theme verse is:
John 15:10 (ESV)
10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.
This morning we are looking at Jesus commandment to “Pick up your Cross and Follow Him”
I came across a story this week that all the farmers will appreciate.
A hen and a pig approached a church and read the sermon title: “What can we do to help the poor?” Immediately the hen suggested they feed them bacon and eggs. The pig thought for a moment and said, “There is only one thing wrong with feeding bacon and eggs to the poor.
For you it requires only a small contribution, but for me it requires total commitment.”
To be a disciple of Christ requires more than a small contribution, it requires total commitment…
The Biblical definition of a disciple is: a learning follower;
The relationship between the disciple and his teacher is not merely that of a student listening to a lecturer, or simply a passively interested listener. A disciple drinks in every word of his teacher, marking every inflection of voice with an intense desire to apply what has been learned. A disciple is one who will carry on the work of his teacher…
So a Disciple is a learning follower who desires to become like his or her teacher… to become a disciple requires real commitment… Jesus said that His disciples must be willing to pick up their cross and follow him…
Matthew 10:38-39 (ESV)
38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
Matthew 16:24-26 (ESV)
24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?
Luke 9:23-26 (ESV)
23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? 26 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
Jesus has made it clear that the cost of Discipleship is high… You can not be a disciple of Christ and not fully commit… because the cost of discipleship is everything… for those of you who play Texas Hold’em… discipleship means you are going all in…
Because salvation is a free gift sometime I think we forget that true discipleship has a great cost. Jesus said over and over again “if you are not willing to pick up your cross and follow him you are not worthy to be his disciple”
The Romans crucified tens of thousands of people so those whom Jesus was talking to understood what he was saying… He was calling them to be willing to publicly lay down their lives for the sake of the gospel.
The reason that the Romans had the accused carry their cross through the center of town was because… to carry your cross was a public declaration of your guilt and in the Romans way of thinking meant that the accused were actually agreeing with their sentence… it was a public confession that you deserved to be crucified… So to pick up our cross means… we publicly identify ourselves with Jesus even if it means death…
SO THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP IS FULL PUBLIC COMMITMENT TO FOLLOW JESUS NO MATTER WHAT THE COST.
Luke 9:26 (ESV)
26 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
Romans 1:16 (ESV)
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
There is no such thing as a closet Christian… The world wants you to think that your faith is a private matter… I’m telling you this morning that is a lie from the devil… The Christian faith has always meant to be lived in community and publicly…
Sometimes, I believe, we are so anxious for people to follow Jesus and be his disciples, that we under emphasize how much it will cost.
OF COURSE SALVATION IS COMPLETELY FREE.
There is nothing that we can do or give that will buy our salvation, Christ has already paid that price for us by dying on the cross. We also know that it is His Kindness that leads us to repentance… We like to talk of grace and mercy… and all of this is totally and absolutely true. God’s love, grace, mercy and salvation are free gifts offered to use by faith in Christ Jesus…
However, there is another side to it.
While, we cannot buy our salvation… or eternal life… or God’s love… or our place in heaven.
Faith in Christ does cost us. It costs us our independence; it costs us our will, our plans for our future. It costs us our old lifestyles. It often brings us ridicule and contempt from people around us.
It may cost us relationships with people we love…
And for some it may even cost you your life…
Jesus said over and over again that anyone who wanted to be his disciple would have to pick up their cross and follow him…
Discipleship is costly and many who accept Jesus as the savior will never become true Disciples of Christ because the cost is too great…
Some pastors and churches today teach that if we follow Jesus then we will be healthy and wealthy and have a smooth, comfortable, pain-free life. As a matter of fact they go so far as to teach that if you are not healthy and prosperous then you don’t have enough faith…
However Jesus did not promise us wealth and health, He promised the opposite. He stated that hardship, sacrifice, self-denial and often persecution would be the sort of life that his followers would experience here on earth and that hardships we endure on earth are worth the eternal gift of salvation and eternity with Jesus…
SO THIS MORNING I WANT US TO EXAMINE THE TRUE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP AND JESUS’ COMMAND TO PICK UP YOUR CROSS BY LOOKING AT LUKE 14:26-33
LUKE 14:26-33 (ESV)
26 “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. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 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? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 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? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
JESUS MAKES THREE STATEMENTS ABOUT DISCIPLESHIP IN THIS PASSAGE…
1. If you are not willing to hate your family you cannot be a disciple.
2. If you do not bear your own cross you cannot be a disciple.
3. If you do not renounce all that you have you cannot be a disciple.
Jesus also tells us that we need to be willing to count the cost and calculate the risk before we commit our lives to Jesus.
Let’s look at each of these things and try to unpack what Jesus is communicating to us this morning…
1. IF YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO HATE YOUR FAMILY YOU CANNOT BE A DISCIPLE.
26 “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.
There are at least two understandings of this verse… the first is that our love for Christ should be so great that it makes our love for even our family seem like hate… Our love for God should be first and foremost…
Jesus actually said in
Matthew 10:37 (ESV)
37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
So while that is a true Biblical concept… why wouldn’t Jesus just say that? like we just read in the Matthew 10…
Some extreme folks say that we are to hate our family and we are only to love God… but that doesn’t line up with any of the teachings of Jesus… Like husbands are to love their wives like Christ loves the church… we are to love one another… we are to love our enemies… So hating our family doesn’t seem to fit with the overall teachings of Jesus…
But when we put this verse into the context in which Jesus spoke it… it makes sense… Jesus spoke this into a Jewish culture, whose leaders wanted to kill Jesus and his followers… The Bible tells us this plainly that people were afraid to acknowledge Jesus
John 7:13 (ESV)
13 Yet for fear of the Jews no one spoke openly of him.
John 9:22-23 (ESV)
22 (His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.) 23 Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”
So to become a Christian in the context in which these words were spoken would mean that your family would probably disown you, hate you, and may even treat you as if you were dead… Not just parents but spouses and children too, because when this was spoken Jesus is just coming on the scene. So, there are no Christian families, there are no Christian legacies to be pasted on… only new converts to Christianity…
So what Jesus is teaching us here is… if we want to be a disciple than we must be willing to publically confess Christ even if it means that those closest to use reject us because of it.
These attitudes are not something we are accustom to in our culture but things are changing and more and more people see Christianity as a threat… and for those living in Muslim or Hindu families this is a reality of life… For them to convert to Christianity many time means they are hated by their families.
On a side note: Last week we talked about mercy… as disciples we are to love our enemies and do good to those who hate us… So that means we are still to respond in love to those who reject us for our faith…
So to be a disciple of Christ we must be willing to put our faith above our relationships…
2. IF YOU DO NOT BEAR YOUR OWN CROSS YOU CANNOT BE A DISCIPLE.
27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
In other words you must be willing to put your faith above your own life…
Today, the image of the cross has lost its horror. The true message of the cross is death.
How many of you are either wearing a cross today, or have a cross on your Bible?
The cross has become benign piece of harmless jewelry. In the Jesus’ time, it was a horrible, agonizing tortuous mode of execution. It was the noose, the electric chair, the lethal injection of the day.
In the time of Jesus when you saw someone carrying a roman cross it meant only one thing – they were as good as dead. They were defeated and there life on earth was over… It was a public execution, you were made a spectacle of, and by being made to carry your cross your where publically confessing your guilt…
In The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote:
“The cross is laid on every Christian. As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with his death–we give over our lives to death. The cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” (The Cost of Discipleship, p.99).
The Cost of Discipleship means that you die to self… It means that you no longer live your life but you live for Christ. You see the world is ok with religion as long as it is something you do for fun but has no real impact on your life… but when you begin to let the Bible guide your actions, when you truly commitment yourself to being a disciple of Jesus, when you are willing to stand up and say I have died with Christ… as Paul said in
Galatians 2:20 (ESV)
20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
When you become a disciple of Christ you become dangerous to the establishment and you become a threat to our enemy. Because when you die to self then Holy Spirit can work mightily through you.
So to be a disciple of Christ… we must be willing to put our faith above our relationships… you must be willing to put your faith above your own life… and you must be willing to put your faith above your stuff…
3. IF YOU DO NOT RENOUNCE ALL THAT YOU HAVE YOU CANNOT BE A DISCIPLE.
33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
The united stated economy is driven by people like you and I who buy things we don’t really need. AS a matter of fact that is being proven in our economy today… people are uncertain about their future, so people are buying fewer things, borrowing less money, and our economy continues to slow down… What do you think would happen to our economy if everyone began to buy only what they needed to survive?
Here’s the thing you cannot serve both God and money… you can’t.
To truly be a disciple of Christ. Jesus has to be more important than your Job, Your House, Your Car, Your Kid’s Education, Your Kid’s football… Jesus has to come before your big screen TV... Jesus has to be first.
I’m not going to spend much time on this one because we will talk about money and possessions in another message… but the point here is that to be a disciple of Jesus nothing can get in your way or take priority… JESUS MUST BE THE PRIMARY FOCUS OF YOUR LIFE…
So often we think of discipleship as a church program… where you read a book and meet with a group of new believers for 8 to 10 weeks so you can memorize John 3:16 and learn about tithing…
BUT JESUS SAYS DISCIPLESHIP IS REALLY ABOUT COMMITMENT… the first steps of becoming a true disciple of Jesus is to put your relationship with Jesus first in everything… you must be willing to put Jesus above our relationships… you must be willing to put Jesus above your own life… and you must be willing to put Jesus above your stuff…
If you are not willing to put Jesus first in those three areas of your life… Jesus said you are not worthy to be a disciple…
So then the question this morning is are you willing to put Jesus first in your life?
Before you answer that question you need to count the cost of discipleship:
Luke 14:28-32
28 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? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 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? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.
These two parables are similar but they are teaching slightly different points. The builder of the tower is free to build or not. It’s his choice. So if he begins to build and doesn’t have the money to complete the project, he has no one to blame but himself… so before he commits to the project he should know the costs and make sure he is willing and able to pay the bill.
Following Jesus is your choice but you need to make sure that this is a commitment you are willing to make…
However, the story of the king being invaded is a situation where he must do something or face incredible consequences. The king only has two choices commit to battle or make peace… Because the king is out numbered… to go to war means certain defeat and ultimately death… So his only real choice is to beg for mercy and make peace… You can chose to side with the enemies of God but the outcome has already been decided, all those who oppose Jesus will be conquered, judged, and condemned to hell… So, you must calculate what it might cost you to not follow Jesus.
So here is the bottom line… to truly follow Christ will cost you more than you knew you had give… it will cost you everything… but not following Jesus has a greater cost… What will you say when you are standing face to face with Jesus… and he asks you why didn’t you follow me, and the only answer you have is “it wasn’t worth the cost…”
Even, if we are not talking about salvation…
I don’t want to stand before my Lord and Savior and say “Sorry Jesus following You was to costly so I played it safe and kept my faith in the closet.”
Jesus said… 26 “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. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
THOSE ARE THE WORDS OF JESUS. So each of us must count the cost and then answer the question… Am I truly willing to put Jesus first in my life?
For those who answer yes… Jesus promises to give us life and life to the full!
Let’s Pray