In life we like to be Comfortable
• The temps in our houses
• Ourselves
• Financially
• Relationships
• Our Surroundings
People don’t like to feel uncomfortable in any situation.
• Because It feels… well…uncomfortable.
• As a result, people will go to great lengths to avoid situations that make them feel uncomfortable.
But Sometimes as a result of being comfortable it leads to a false sense of security
• We become so Comfortable with where we are that we lose tract of what’s going on around us
• And because of that we tend to buy into the falsehood that everything is Ok
• And that’s what we are going to talk about today
For the past many 6 weeks or so on Wednesday night we have been a part of a small group Bible study called “Not A Fan”
• And we wrapped this up last Wednesday night
• And afterwards as we were fellowshipping a few people came up to me and made the comments that
• A. They had never thought of the ideas this way
• B That this was to important a topic to not share with the rest of the congregation
So today we are going to take a look at the heart of this study and we find it in Luke 9:21-27
Background
• In the beginning of this chapter we see Jesus sending out the 12 disciples
• And before He sends them out He empowers them
• He gives them the ability To cast out Demons and Cure Diseases
• With the empowerment in place His instructions are to go tell Everyone about the Kingdom of God
• ELAB (Take nothing with you, And if the towns you go to don’t welcome you, shake the dust off your feet as you leave to show that they have left them to their fate.
Word gets back to Herod of this and hes confused on who Jesus is
• Some said He was John the Baptist raised from the dead
• Others said He was Elijah or one of the other prophets raised from the dead
• So his response is, I beheaded John, so who is this guy??
Meanwhile the disciples have returned
• And they are sharing their adventures / encounters with Jesus
• And Jesus tries to slip away with them, heading towards the town of Bethsaida
• But the crowds of people found out where He was going and followed Him
• And Jesus welcomed them, And He taught them about the same thing the disciples had been sent out to teach about the Kingdom of God.
• And after He gets done teaching them we see that He fed them
• First He fed them Spiritually then he fed them Physically
• This was the feeding of the 5000 with 5 Loaves and 2 Fish
So this is what was been going on
• They had been empowered / Taught / Witnessed Jesus teaching / Seen Miracles
Read 23-27
Lk 9:21 Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone.
Lk 9:22 And he said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”
Lk 9:23 Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
Lk 9:24 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.
Lk 9:25 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?
Lk 9:26 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
Lk 9:27 I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.”
What we see is that Jesus opens up
• About His rejection and His death and what He expects from His followers
• And then in vs 23 He turns to the crowd and say,
• If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross daily, and follow me.
Explain the meaning of the cross in Jesus day
• Now When Jesus carried His cross up Golgotha to be crucified, no one was thinking of the cross as symbolic of a burden to carry.
• To a person in the first-century, the cross meant one thing and one thing only:
• Death by the most painful and humiliating means human beings could develop.
• Two thousand years later, we as Christians view the cross as a cherished symbol of atonement, forgiveness, grace, and love.
• But in Jesus’ day, the cross represented nothing but torturous / meant death.
• Along with the fact that the Romans forced convicted criminals to carry their own crosses to the place of crucifixion,
• Bearing a cross meant carrying their own execution device while facing ridicule along the way to death.
One thing is clear in scripture and that is Jesus didn’t care about the Fans He wanted followers
• In John chapter 6 we see the account of Jesus feeding the 5000
• And in vs 22 we see that the crowd the following day after being fed
• Went looking for Jesus
• Because they were hungry again
• And Jesus teaches them and over the course of the next 40 vs they wined / Complained
• Jesus was giving them the requirements of what they needed to do
• And they didn’t like it
And the end result comes in vs 66 where we see that
• Jn 6:66 At this point many of his disciples turned away and deserted him.
• And when this happens we see that Jesus doesn’t go chasing after them
• We do this in church, we chase after those that walk away / try to lure them back, We compromise the situation to appease people so that they will come back
• But here Jesus just lets them go
• Because they were nothing more than fans. And Jesus wants true followers
But what is the difference between being a Fan and a Follower
• Explain being fans of Rock stars / actors / celebrities
• Even though we may like them / Know about them
• We don’t really know them for them
DTR – Define the relationship – There comes a time where we all face this in life
• Dating there comes a time where we have to DTR and see just how committed we are
• Is this moving in the direction I want or do I turn and walk away?
• And there comes a point in our lives as Christians where we are forced to have the DTR talk with Jesus
• Jesus wants us to DTR He wants to find out our commitment to Him
Therefore, “Take up your cross and follow Me” means
• Being willing to die in order to follow Jesus.
• This is called “dying to self.” It’s a call to absolute surrender.
And there are consequences for our decisions but cause look at
Mt 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
Mt 7:22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’
Mt 7:23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
I don’t know about you but these vs scare me!!
• And it goes back to what we started with we’ve become too comfortable
• Here Jesus is telling the people who have Prophesized in His Name / cast out demons / Performed miracles
• That this just isn’t enough
• If you really want to be called mine
What Jesus is saying is that if you really want to be one of my followers
• Are you willing to follow Jesus if it means losing some of your closest friends?
• Are you willing to follow Jesus if it means alienation from your family?
• Are you willing to follow Jesus if it means the loss of your reputation?
• Are you willing to follow Jesus if it means losing your job?
• Are you willing to follow Jesus if it means losing your life?
Jesus is telling His disciples and us that if we want to really to be His
• That we have to be willing to die to ourselves
• Our wants , Our desires , Or lives
• We have to be willing to Live for Him , and Die to our selfish desires
So how do we do this?
• Love of others
• Because we see the love of others in everything Jesus did.
• Feed the poor, care for others , Give them hope
• Show that someone cares
• Show them that as Christians we are real
• Compassion and to be there to pray
• Giving
The statement was made in the series referring to Jesus
Without You I am nothing- Without Love I am Nothing
The only way I can be anything is if I’m Yours
And the only way people will know that I’m Yours is if I love
Without Love It doesn’t matter what I say / how much faith I have / how much I Give
The only way people will know that I’m Yours is if I love
So today the question that I want to leave you with is
• Do you want to be a fan or a follower
