Subject: Christian Discipleship
Scripture: Luke 14.25-33
Sermon: “Jesus Wants Followers Not Fans”
Scope: This sermon should challenge each hearer to examine their commitment as a follower of Jesus Christ.
Summary: To be a follower of Christ takes a supreme commitment.
Segue: Let’s look at some truths that will help you determine your status as a Fan or Follower of Jesus Christ.
Introduction: Are you ready for some football! We are only 48 days 3hrs and approximately 30 minutes to the kick off of Alabama football. Foot ball in Alabama is more than a sport. It is a way of life. We live foot ball 365 days a year. It is almost like a religion. In fact we begin to indoctrinate our children with our foot ball theology even before they come out of the womb. Every Alabamian at some point in their childhood must declare their team affiliation whether they want to or not.
Football fans do crazy things. We will pack up our RV’s and head to the parking lot of our favorite ball team so that we can gill out and watch the game on television when we could have done that same thing at home on our own patio.
Fans are finicky. When things are going good for the team we fill the stands and cheer them on. But, when the chips are down we criticize every play. We bad mouth the players and the coach. We talk about the way it used to be. Fans come in frenzies. They feed on the excitement and vanish when the difficult times come.
The sad truth is that many Christians today resemble football fans. They rally around the excitement and they run from the work. They encourage in the good times and criticize when things are not going so well. They fill the pew and wait to be entertained.
Jesus understood this. We find Him own His way to Jerusalem and a crowd has gathered around Him. In fact the Bible says that "great multitudes" were all around Him. When Jesus saw these multitudes He turned and said to them in essence, "I’m not looking for fans; I’m looking for followers."
Jesus is saying to us today what He said to those multitudes in His day. It’s easy to be a fan. Fans are here today and gone tomorrow. Following takes commitment. Following takes sacrifice. Unfortunately the church today is filled with fans rather than followers. We have people in our pews that are fans of the building they gather in. There are those in church today who are fans of the preacher or the worship leader. There are those who are even fans of Jesus, but they have never made the transition to become a follower of Jesus. It is time for you to declare your loyalty. It is time for you to decide if you’re going to be a fan or a follower of Jesus Christ. Today we are going to look at several truths that will help us understand what it takes to become a follower of Christ rather than a fan.
First, we must realize that there is a cost to following Jesus Christ. This cost is two fold. It begins with a supreme commitment. Jesus said to these multitudes, "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters yes, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple (Luke 14.26 NKJV)." We here these words and we say wait just one minute. Did I read that correctly? Did Jesus just tell me that if I wanted to follow Him that I had to hate those who were closest to me? This seems to be the complete opposite of what we know about God and His character. After all the Bible tells us the "God is Love." Jesus has told us in other places that we must love one another. In fact the Bible teaches that people will know that we are the children of God by the way we love each other. Yet, here we have Jesus telling us that we must hate in order to follow Him.
It gets even more confusing than that. Look at what Jesus said in Matthew 10.34-37; "Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ’set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and a man’s enemies will be those of his own household. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me (NKJV)." We read that with a confused look on our faces. We say how can this be? What does He mean that we are "not worthy" of Him if we don’t hate those who should be some of our closest relationship?
To understand this we must know that the Bible is not contradicting itself. We must realize that these statements represent a comparative idea. Yes, God is love. Yes, we are to love one another. After all love is the summation of all of the law of God. Jesus summed up the Ten Commandments with two statements about our love for God and our love for our neighbor. However, Jesus in our text here today is saying that if you come after me; if you want to be my follower then you must love me more than any thing or any body in this universe. He is saying that when you compare your love for me and your love for every other relationship you have it should appear as though your love for me so out shines your love for any thing or any body else that it seems that you hate them in comparison to me.
For instance if some one asked you to gauge you love for you wife on a scale of 1 to 10 you would probably say 10 especially if she were present. If some one asked you to gauge your love for your children and a scale of 1 to 10 you would probably say 10. However, according to Jesus’ statement in these passages if you are going to follow Him if someone asked you to gauge you love for Him on the same scale as your wife and children you would have to say 1 million and 10 because there is no comparison. In other words our love for Him compared to our love for our family and friends should be so much greater that it appears by comparison that we hate every body else and love Him. Quite frankly, we can not love any one else as we should unless we have a passionate love for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Let me show you how serious God is about this issue. We know from the Old Testament that God is a jealous God. The Ten Commandments begin with the concept that we should not place any being or any thing before our relationship with God. Israel stayed in trouble because they constantly broke that commandment. Here how God addressed this issue with the Children of Israel:
"If your brother, the son of your mother, your son or your daughter, the wife of your bosom, or our friend who is as your own soul, secretly entices you, saying, ’Let us go and serve other gods’, which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers, of the gods of the people which are all around you, near to you or far off from you, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth, you shall not consent to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him or conceal him; but you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. And you shall stone him with stones until he dies, because he sought to entice you away form the Lord your God (Deuteronomy 13.6-10 NKJV)."
God is serious about our commitment to Him. So much so that He commanded the children of Israel to "kill" any one who even tried to entice them away even if that someone was a family member or a close friend. Do not misunderstand. I am not suggesting that you should go around killing people. I am merely suggesting to you that God intends for our relationship with Him to be sacred and first in our lives. I want you to understand that you and I must be willing to forsake all and follow Him. I we want to be followers rather than fans we must make the supreme commitment to put Him first place in our live.
This cost of following Christ begins with a supreme commitment and continues with a supreme sacrifice. Jesus said to these multitudes, "Whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple (Luke 14.26 NKJV)." What does it mean to "bear his cross"? We often hear people talk about the problems of life and suggest that those or simply the crosses we have to bear. However, I believe that we are missing the greater truth of this concept.
The cross of Christ represents sacrifice. Jesus came to the cross because of sin. Paul tells us that the "wages of sin is death (Romans 6.23 NKJV)." So, because of sin someone had to die. That someone should have been you or me. However, because of our depravity even if we had die on the cross we would not have freed ourselves from sins penalty nor would we have appeased the wrath of God towards sin. This is true because we are tainted with the disease of sin and the sacrifice for sin must be perfect with out blemish. This is the picture painted for us in the Old Testament sacrificial system. The law required perfection. The sacrifices brought to the temple were to be as perfect as they could be. Yet, no human ever created since Adam and Eve is perfect because of our depraved nature. Therefore, Jesus had to come and live the perfect life we could not so that He could become the "propitiation" for our sin.
So, the cross points to the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ who became our payment for sin. Jesus died on the cross for our sin. Therefore, we must join Him in that death to sin so that we can live for Him. That’s what carrying the cross is all about. Carrying the cross is to "reckon [yourself] to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6.11 NKJV)." It is to know, "that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should not longer be slaves of sin (Romans 6.6NKJV)."
Carrying the cross is dedicating yourself to the Lord now and forever. It is when you determine that you will "not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God (Romans 12.2 NKJV)."
Being a follower comes with a cost. If we want to be followers rather than fans we must make the supreme commitment forsake all and the supreme sacrifice to turn from sin and self so that we can be fully committed to Him.
Secondly, there is a concern that must be expressed. An important word reoccurs through out this passage. It is the word "cannot". We see this word three times in this passage. It occurs in verses 26, 27, and 33. Jesus says to these multitudes that those who do not come after Him with this level of commitment "cannot be His disciples."
The word "cannot" is a compound word in the Greek. It is the words ouk dunamai. The Greek word ouk means not and the word dunamai means power or ability. So, in other words Jesus is saying that those who try to come after Him with less that total commitment do not have the power or ability to become His followers or disciples.
Yet, we read in John 1.12 that, "as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name (NKJV)." The word "right" is a world in the Greek that literally means authority. So, the authority to become a child, a follower, a disciple of God is granted to those who receive Him and believe in His name, yet, those who come with less than total commitment do not have the ability or power to be His disciples. Therefore, it seems that God is saying to us that we cannot receive Him or believe in His name if we are unwilling to come to Him in total commitment.
Here is the danger. Jesus warned those multitudes to count the cost of discipleship. He used several illustrations of this in our text. It is important that those who would come to be followers of Christ understand the level of commitment that is required of them lest they enter only as a fan and fool themselves into thinking that they are followers. How blinded are those who sit in our pews Sunday after Sunday thinking that they are followers of Christ when there level of commitment reveals that they are nothing more than fans. How dangerous is this state of mind when you think you are eternally ready only to find out that you came up short because you were not willing forsake all and follow Him.
Jesus confirmed that there will be many who were merely fans rather than followers when He said, "Not everyone who says to Me, ’Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 7.21 NKJV)." He also confirmed that there will be many revealed as merely fans painted up in the tapestry of Christianity when He said, "many will say to Me in that day, ’Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ’I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness’ (Matthew 7.22-23 NKJV)?"
My friends it’s easy to be a fan of Christ, but it takes total commitment to be a follower of Christ. Jesus is looking for followers not fans. Fans are lost and headed for eternal torment and separation from God in the lake of fire. Followers are God’s children who are assured an eternal home in His Kingdom. Which are you today?
