#130 Lu. 14:25-27  BECOMING A REAL DISCIPLE OF JESUS

Introduction:

    I am sure you have heard the expression, "This is what
separates the men from the boys."  Well, that same principle
applies to our text today.  Well, this text does not separate the
men from the boys, but it does separate the real disciples of
Jesus from those who merely pretend to be disciples.  It shows us
what real discipleship requires and challenges us all to become
real genuine disciples of Jesus Christ.
    First, however, we should understand the meaning of the word,
disciple.  The word, disciple, does not speak necessarily of one
who is saved.  It speaks of one who is a follower of another or
one who learns from another.  It may mean that he follows
literally and physically after the other person ---that he goes
where that other person goes.  Or it may mean that he follows the
teachings of the other person.
    I think you are aware that a lot of people in this world are
known as disciples of Jesus who are not real genuine disciples of
Jesus.  In the Scripture Judas Iscariot was called a disciple and
he was in the sense that he followed daily with Jesus just as the
other eleven apostles did.  He was a disciple in the sense of
sitting at the feet of Jesus and learning the things which Jesus
taught.  That is, at least, he heard what Jesus taught.  But Judas
was not saved.  He never had and never would measure up to the
requirements that Jesus set forth in our text.

I.  The great multitude which was following Jesus

    V. 25, "And there went great multitudes with him: and he
turned, and said unto them,"  Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem to
be crucified.  The Jewish leadership had become His bitter
enemies, but He was still very popular with the masses of common
people.  Apparently He was no longer in the home of the Pharisee
which had involved our last several texts.  He is walking along
the roadway making His way slowly toward Jerusalem.
    This verse says that great multitudes went with Him.  They
were His followers at least on a temporary basis.  There is the
strong possibility that many of them, like Jesus, were also on
their way to Jerusalem.  The purpose of their journey, of course,
was to observe the annual Passover.  I have an idea that many of
them followed Jesus through city after city and village after
village as they traveled along.  As I said, they were at least
temporarily His followers.  They not only were attracted to Him by
the miracles, but they were attracted to Him by His great
preaching and teaching.  Jesus was a great preacher.  One
Scripture says, "Never a man spake as He." From the standpoint of
being followers of Jesus and learning the things that He said,
they could well be called "His disciples." They were His disciples
as far as the strict definition of the word is concerned.
    But Jesus wanted more than that out of them.  Most of them
were following Jesus because of the miracles that He performed.
They had all heard about His miracles.  A goodly number of them
had been privileged to see one or more of His miracles.  All of
them hoped to see Him perform miracles in the course of their
journey toward Jerusalem.  Some, no doubt, followed because they
wanted to be healed or wanted Him to heal a loved one or friend
whom they had brought to Him.  Also, all of them were curious as
to what He would say next in His preaching and teaching.  Jesus
always seemed to say something they had not expected Him to say.
There is the possibility that a few of them had already been
saved, either under the preaching of John the Baptist or perhaps
even under the preaching of Jesus or one of His disciples.  But it
is likely that none of them were numbered among those who
regularly followed Jesus.  Chiefly they followed out of curiosity.
    Yet Jesus wanted more from them than that.  He wanted them all
to be saved.  He wanted them all to become His followers in the
sense of real discipleship.  Therefore, Jesus set down some of the
qualifications of true discipleship.

II.  The qualifications of true discipleship

    V. 26, "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and
mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea,
and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple."  This sounds at
first like a very strange statement for Jesus to make.  In fact it
sounds at first like it is a downright contradiction to what is
taught both in the Old and New Testaments.  One of the Ten
Commandments says, "Honor thy father and thy mother," Ex. 20:12.
In Ephesians 5:25 the Apostle Paul said, "Husbands, love your
wives."  One of the two basic principles of the whole law of Moses
is:  "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."  In the New
Testament Jesus Himself gave His disciples a new commandment,
saying, "Love one another."  Why then would Jesus here tell this
multitude that they should hate father and mother, wife and
children, brothers and sisters, when we are taught throughout the
Bible to love them?
    The answer to that question is not as difficult as it may
seem and it is not at all contradictory to what is taught in the
Scriptures.  The answer lies in the meaning in the Greek language
in which the New Testament was originally written.  The Greek word
that here is translated "hate" does not always mean to despise or
abhor.  Rather throughout the New Testament it means "To love
less."  Therefore, Jesus was not actually saying that one must
despise or abhor or have contempt for father and mother, sister
and brother, wife and children.  What He was actually saying was
that a one must love these less than he loves Jesus.  If one is
going to be a real genuine follower of Jesus he must be willing to
put Jesus first.
    This is in keeping with the first basic principle on which the
law of Moses was based.  The first basic principle is:  "Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul
and with all thy mind."  Jesus is Deity God.  He is the Second
Person of the Holy Trinity.  He is Deity God born in human flesh.
One who would be a real genuine disciple of Jesus must accept Him
as such.  He must realize that Jesus is not just a great miracle
worker.  He is not just a great teacher.  He is more than that.
He is Deity God in human flesh and we should love Jesus more than
any other human being on the face of this earth.
    We should love Jesus more, not only because He is Deity God,
but because Jesus loves us more than any other human being on the
face of this earth.  Jesus loves us more than our earthy father
and mother love us.  He loves us more than our earthly brothers
and sisters love us.  He loves us more than our wife or husband
and children love us.  He loves more than any other human being
loves us.
    Jesus has done more for us than any other human being on the
face of this earth has done for us.  Jesus died for us on the
cross that we might be saved.  Then when we repented of our sins
and called upon Him for mercy and asked Him to save us and keep us
out of hell, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit of God to cause us to be
born again and make us children of God.  It was Jesus who saved
us.  Now that we are saved, it is Jesus who keeps us saved.  It
was Jesus who saved us and Jesus who keeps us saved.  It is Jesus
who gives us the air we breathe, the food on our tables and the
clothes on our backs.  I do not hesitate to say to you that Jesus
has done more for us than any other human being in this world has
done.  Out of the gratitude of our hearts, we ought to love Him
more than all others.
    Now note again, please, that a true disciple is required to
love Jesus more than he loves even himself.  (V. 26), "...yea, and
his own life also..."  One should not only love Jesus more than he
loves any other human being, but he should love Jesus more than he
loves even himself.  If one is going to love himself more than he
loves Jesus, then he will not put Jesus first in his life.  In
Luke 9:23 Jesus said, "If any man will come after me, let him deny
himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me." That
principle still holds true.  One must be willing to sacrifice the
things that his own flesh nature craves in order to do the will of
God in his life.  He must love the Lord more than he loves money.
He must love the Lord more than he loves possessions.  He must
love the Lord more than he loves pleasure.  He must love the Lord
more than he loves honor and prestige.  He must love the Lord more
than he loves life itself.  He must be willing to sacrifice
anything for the Lord, even to the sacrifice of his own life if
need be.
    Jesus said that if one is unwilling to make these sacrifices
for Him that person cannot be His disciple.  Note that in the
text: (V. 26), "...he cannot be my disciple."
    Now please note that Jesus did not say that he cannot be
saved.  Jesus did not say that one has to make all those
sacrifices in order to go to heaven.  That is not true at all.
What one must do in order to be saved is to repent of his sin and
trust in Jesus Christ as his Savior.  The Apostle Paul preached
everywhere he went:  "Repentance toward God and faith toward the
Lord Jesus Christ."  Acts 16:31 says, "Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and thou shalt be saved..."  Ephesians 2:8-9 says that
salvation is by the grace of God through faith and that it is not
by works.  Titus 3:5 says that salvation is, "Not by works of
righteousness that we have done, but according to his mercy he
saved us..."
    One can be saved without loving Jesus above all other human
beings, but he can never make a genuine disciple without doing so.
If he does not love Jesus above all, then he will never make a
disciple of the Lord.  He will never be able to follow Jesus in
the kind of sacrificial life that Jesus lived unless he loves
Jesus above all.
    Furthermore, Jesus makes it clear that if one is going to be
His disciple he must be willing to make personal sacrifices and
endure personal suffering.  V. 27, "And whosoever doth not bear
his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple."  Again, let
me try to make it perfectly clear that Jesus is not here talking
about getting saved and going to heaven.  He is talking about true
discipleship.  Taking up the cross is not the way to get saved.
Coming to the cross and trusting the Christ who died on the cross
is the way to get saved.  But after one is saved, he should take
up his own cross and suffer and sacrifice for Jesus.
    When Jesus made this statement to this crowd of people about
one being required to take up his cross, one would not think of
Jesus as taking up His own cross and, thus, setting an example for
him to follow.  At that time Jesus had not died on the cross.
Jesus knew that He was on His way to Jerusalem to die on the
cross, but this people did not know that.  Yet because under Roman
rule the death penalty was commonly carried out by means of the
cross, they were very familiar with the cross as a symbol of
suffering and sacrifice.
    Jesus said that if one would not take up his cross and come
after Him, he could not be His disciple.  One must be willing to
sacrifice in order to be a true follower of Jesus.  One must be
willing to suffer in order to be a true follower of Jesus.  There
is no way to be a true follower of Jesus without sacrificing for
Jesus and suffering for Jesus.

III.  Some questions for you and me

    Let ask you a few questions.  First of all, have you ever come
to the place in your life that you realized that you were a lost
sinner in the sight of God and that you were on your road to hell?
You were lost and you were on your road to hell whether you
realized it or not.  If you have never acknowledged that this is
so, then maybe it is time for you to wake up to the fact that you
are not going to spend eternity in East Texas.  You are going to
die and you are going to spend eternity somewhere.  You had better
make sure that it is not in hell.  You had better come today and
trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior.
    On the other hand, if you are saved, let me ask you some
questions: How much do you love the Lord?  Do you love Him more
than you love your father and your mother?  Do you love Him more
than you love your companion or your children?  Do you love Jesus
more than you love yourself?  If not, then you can see that you
need to grow in the grace of God.  You need to come to the place
that you can love Jesus more than you do anybody else in the
world, even yourself.  Let me ask you this:  How much are you
willing to sacrifice for Jesus?  Are you willing to sacrifice of
your time in order to serve Jesus?  You may say, "Why sure.  I'm
here, am I not?  I'm willing to sacrifice my time and come to
church."  But how much of your time are you willing to sacrifice
for Jesus?  Are you willing to give up some of your time at the TV
or some of your time relaxing at home or time with your family in
order to do some extra work down at the church?  Are you willing
to sacrifice of your time in order to work in Bible School?  Are
you willing to sacrifice of your time in order to take a Sunday
school or BTC class?  Are you willing to sacrifice of your time in
order go out and visit for the Lord and invite people to church?
Are you willing to sacrifice in order to give of your money to the
Lord?  If you are really going to be of any use to the Lord, you
are going to have to make sacrifices for Him.
    Are you willing to suffer for Christ?  Are you willing to be
thought of as being narrow minded?  Are you willing to be looked
on as being a religious nut?  Are you willing to have friends cut
you off and have nothing else to do with you because of your stand
for Christ?  Let me say to you that you are going to have to be
willing to suffer for Jesus if you are going to amount to a hill-
of-beans for the Lord.
    Let me point this out to you.  At the time that Jesus spoke to
that great crowd of people, very few, if any, of that crowd were
already true disciples of Jesus.  But our Lord spoke to them in
this manner because He wanted them to become true disciples.  He
wanted them all to become true disciples.  I think He wants the
same thing from the people of this congregation.  If you are not
already a true disciple of Jesus, then this is the time to become
one.

Conclusion:

    I am going to call on our musicians at this time to come
forward and prepare for the invitation hymn.  I am also going to
call on you who are unsaved to come and trust the Lord Jesus
Christ as your Savior.  If you are saved and you recognize that
your life is out of the will of the Lord, I am going to ask that
you come and get your life right with God.  If you are saved and
you have never followed the Lord in baptism, then I am going to
ask you to come forward and follow the Lord in baptism.  If you
are saved and you are in need of moving your membership here then
I am going to ask that you come forward while our people sing this
hymn.