TOPIC: CROWD OR DISCIPLE
(A Life that Honors God – Sermon on the Mount Series)
Text: Matthew 5:1-2
“1 Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them, saying:”
Introduction:
(ILL. College Needed "Follower" Not Leader – With the growing avalanche of college applications, this joke, purportedly based on a true incident, gets dusted off: An honest father wrote to the dean at a women’s college, objectively appraising his daughter’s qualifications. "While she is not an outstanding leader," he admitted, "she does follow well." Back came the dean’s reply: "We have already admitted 167 leaders to this year’s freshman class and desperately need your daughter since she is the only follower."—Changing Times)
We are in the times where follower is needed by God. God desires followers. What God is wanting is not just a believer but a follower, a disciple. While every disciple is a believer, every believer on the other hand is not necessarily a disciple.
Almost last three Sundays ago I started to talked about being a kingdom builder, where Jesus compares it to wise builder who builds his house in a rock, Matthew 7:24 "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock” And Jesus is referring here to His teaching on the Sermon on the mount. And today I would like to challenge us to be God’s Kingdom Builder by going back at the very start of the Sermon on the Mount, for us to know the principles behind God’s Builder. Let’s open our Bible in Matthew 5:1-2 (read). From our text we can see a crowd and a disciple. As we look at this let’s see ourselves and let’s ask ourselves, “Am I a crowd or a true disciple of Jesus?”
1. THE CROWD VS. THE DISCIPLE
v.1-2, “1 Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them, saying:”
In Matthew 8:18-22 there is also a situation where large crowds follows Jesus and let’s see what Jesus did (read). When Jesus noticed how large the crowd was growing, he instructed his disciples to cross to the other side of the lake. Then one of the teachers of religious law said to him, "Teacher, I will follow you no matter where you go!" But Jesus said, "Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but I, the Son of Man, have no home of my own, not even a place to lay my head." Another of his disciples said, "Lord, first let me return home and bury my father." But Jesus told him, "Follow me now! Let those who are spiritually dead care for their own dead."Let’s start by taking a closer look at verse 18: “When Jesus noticed how large the crowd was growing, he instructed his disciples to cross to the other side of the lake”. Jesus has been ministering to the crowd near Capernaum. He had healed many diseases and driven out evil spirits. He had preached and taught the people, and so many of them followed Him that they were pressing against Him at the beach. Then Jesus gave His disciples an order: “We need to move to the other side of the Lake.” Why would Jesus want to do this? Of course we know that He had come to seek and to save that which was lost, and that He had indicated often that He must keep moving from town to town to preach the Good News of the Kingdom of God. But the way Matthew has worded verse 18 indicates that the motive for Jesus crossing to the other side was more than just wanted to reach the people on the other side. Matthew writes: “When Jesus noticed how large the crowd was growing, he instructed his disciples to cross to the other side of the lake.” Jesus saw something in the crowd that was not right. Perhaps it had grown too large, but we know that Jesus preached and fed more than 15,000 people at a time when he fed the 5,000 men and their families. I think it is more likely that He observed in the crowd a desire to follow Christ solely based upon His miracles, and not out of desire to change. They were excited about what Jesus could do for them, but they did not have a heart to become ‘like Jesus’.
There is a big difference between a disciple and a crowd. Some of the differences I observe are these: The crowd loved Jesus and sought Him for the help He could bring to their troubled lives. There was nothing wrong with that at first. Jesus loves people and He cares for their injuries and sorrows. He came as a healer and one He restore people to life. But the disciples had grown from following Jesus out of a hunger for His miracles to following Him out of a hunger for Him. The crowd enjoyed listening to the teaching of Jesus, but the disciples wanted to think like Jesus and pray like Jesus and be like Jesus. The crowd wanted a savior to rescue them for all their problems but the disciples longed for a King to rule over their lives. The crowd received what they needed from Jesus and then went on with their lives, but the disciples gave up everything to be with Jesus and to join Him in His work. Crowd follow for their own gain, their own interests but a disciple follow to be with Jesus to experience His fellowship and to minister to others as Jesus minister to them. A crowd considers as consumer but a disciple is producer. A disciple is one who come to Jesus to listen and to learn – the simplest definition of a disciple is ‘student, or one who learns’. But it really means much more than that. A disciple is someone who follows a Master. It is a someone whose life is shaped by the teaching of the Master teacher. In short a disciple is molded and shaped into the Master’s image.
What are we, a crowd or a disciple? Why are we following Jesus, why are we here?
2. THE BIG DIFFERENCE
v.1-2, “1 Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them, saying:”
The big difference between a crowd and a disciple rest on two important words: Relationships and Commitment or Love and Sacrifices. A crowd follows Jesus not because of relationships but personal interests. A crowd follows Jesus and hear Jesus teaching but without commitment. But a true disciple start to respond on Jesus calling, “Come to me” – a new relationship; “Follow me” – a closer relationship as master and servant and lastly “Abide in me” – a deeper relationship as friends. All these three calling involves relationships and sacrifices or commitments. (ILL. Needle And Thread – A native of the Congo prayed thus: "Dear Lord, You be the needle and I be the thread. You go first, and I will follow wherever You may lead.") “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). Jesus was not advocating that in order to be disciples, we must exhibit hate toward family, friends, and ourselves. In this verse, Here He uses the word hate as the opposite of love. He did not choose something easily hated, like sin; instead, He chooses the most noble love we could have in this world—the love of family. He uses this analogy to show that our love for God must take pre-eminence over all others. Your love for God should be so strong that your love for others is like hatred by comparison. Jesus wants to test our hearts. He wants to be sure that we love Him more than anyone or anything else. Abraham of the Old Testament seemed to struggle with this. God gave him a son, Isaac, in his old age. The boy was precious to Abraham’s life, the joy of his heart. This young man was a physical representation of everything sacred to Abraham’s heart: the covenants God had made and the physical link to the coming Messiah. As he watched him grow from a little baby to a strong, young man, perhaps this child began to fill the spot that Abraham had previously reserved for his friend, God. Perhaps, at this point in his life, had he been asked whom he loved more—Isaac or God—it would have been difficult to answer. So God said, “Take your son, your only son—yes, Isaac, whom you love so much—and go to the land of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will point out to you” (Genesis 22:2 NLT). When Abraham so wonderfully passed this test, God blessed him and spared his son. In essence, God was saying, It’s all right, Abraham. I never intended that you actually kill Isaac. I only wanted to remove him from the temple of your heart that I might remain unchallenged there.
Will you dedicate your Isaac to the Lord today? It could be a family member or friend you love more than God. It may be a relationship you are in at the moment. It may be some sort of pursuit you are afraid to give up. Will you step out from the fickle multitudes and fair-weather followers today and be a true disciple of Jesus, loving Him more than anyone or anything else? After this test in Abraham’s life, there was nothing in his life that was not committed to the Lord. He still had great wealth, flocks, and possessions. He still had his son Isaac. He had everything, but he possessed nothing! His grip was very light on these things, and tighter on the eternal. Again, to quote Tozer: “Everything is safe which we commit to Him, and nothing is really safe which is not so committed.” God is still looking for men and women who will shake their world, men and women who will be His disciples. I urge you to make that step. If you do, our world will never be the same again. English evangelist John Wesley once said, “Give me a hundred men who love God with all of their hearts and fear nothing but sin, and I will move the world.”
Conclusion:
What are we? A crowd or a disciple? Matthew 10:37-38 , 37 "Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38 and anyone who 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, 24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
