Fan or Follower Part 2: The Open Invitation
Exodus 4:10-13- Luke 9:21-26
Some of the ideas in this sermon came from Kyle Idleman’s series Fan or Follower which we did at our church.
Have you seen one of those car commercials that says lease a brand new Kia for only $99? You see this beautiful car and below it, there is a paragraph in small letters on the screen for just a few seconds? Why is the print so small and why is it on there for just a few seconds?
I was walking down E. 79th Street thinking of switching my phone service. The cellular phone store I was going to had a large sign out front, “Switch to us and get a brand new phone.” I thought, “Great, I can get a cheaper rate and have an extra phone to play music in the church. I went in the place and was ready to sign up, only to discover that my current phone supplier was not included in the free phone switch plan. Why didn’t they put it out there on the sign? The sign made it seem like an open invitation.
Every invitation that we might receive, really is not for us. It is only for a group of people who meet certain qualifications. You can’t always believe the hype that no one is refused, regardless of their credit. Besides you don’t want to be at that place in the first place. It’s going to cost you a lot more than you should be willing to pay.
As Americans, we know that when a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably has a catch to it somewhere. Your unlimited internet plan means unlimited at one speed for the first movie you watch, but extremely slow for the rest of the month until you pay again. But of course there is a higher payment plan if you want to keep the same speed.
In Jesus’s day, if you wanted to become a religious scholar, you didn’t go off to college. You went and found a distinguished rabbi or a teacher that would train and instruct you. A rabbi would not accept just anybody for a disciple or a student. Students had to pass a rigorous knowledge of the first five books of the Bible. The exam were closed book. You might get a question like how many times is the Lord’s name use in the eleventh chapter of Leviticus? Wrong answer, you could not become that rabbi’s disciple.
Or start quoting the 4th chapter of Numbers. You see the quality of the student was a reflection on the rabbi. Rabbi’s did not want students who could not accurately reflect their level of knowledge and teaching. Rabbi’s were seeking students who had 4.0 gpa, 32 on the ACT and 1600 on the SAT’s. To get the best rabbi’s you had to be in the top of the class. You had to have a good reputation in the community. You had to be somebody or be from a family that was somebody to be chosen by the best rabbis.
Then this new rabbi appears on the scene, teaching at a level unheard of among the masses. When Jesus finishes a message, the people are saying, “where do this man get all this knowledge? We have never heard anything like this before. He speaks with such authority.” You may recall when Jesus was just a 12 year old boy, he had stayed behind in Jerusalem after Mary and Joseph had gone there for a religious festival. They found Jesus in the temple, and he was amazing the teachers with his answer and questions to the great scholars of his day.
Now if you wanted to be one of the future great religious leaders of the day, you want to be included in Jesus’s group of disciples. He is the hottest Rabbi of his time. So the people are wondering, what kind of test do you have to pass? How many books of the bible do you have to be able to memorize? What social standing do you have to have? How important does your family have to be? Who do you have to know to get an inside track to have Jesus accept you?
But then Jesus flips the script on what it was going to take to be one of his disciples, and he offers an open enrollment plan. He says in Luke 9:23 Luke 9:23 (NIV2011) 23 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. or Luke 9:23 (NIV) 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.
Why consider Jesus at all? 1. He promises to connect you with God. He promises that you will never face life alone. He promises to develop a character in you that is pleasing to God. He promises to take you to heaven when you die. He promises to forgive you of your sins and to make you a blessing to others. He promises you, you will have some hard times in life, but he will see you through them all. He promises you deliverance from sin. He promises you a spot in the kingdom of God and in the body of Christ. He promises you adoption into the family of God. He promises the Holy Spirit will fill your body and guide your life.
Did he really mean “anyone”? Could he be serious about “Whoever”. That almost sounded like nobody was excluded. That just didn’t sound right. I mean if Harvard said, “anyone could come to Harvard next year”, would there be enough room in the college to hold everybody that would be trying to get in. If Ohio State said, anyone can join our football team next, would there be enough room on the sidelines for all the players that would show up wanting to be on the team.
Jesus is saying my invitation is going out to anyone, and I am not going to hide anything in fine print. Anyone—the learned scholar. Anyone the elementary school dropout. Anyone—the rich banker, anyone the homeless woman on the corner. Anyone the 72 year old grandfather. Anyone the 8 year old child. Anyone the good upright citizen. Anyone the addict who turned prostitute. Anyone-the person with doubts and questions about religion. Anyone the atheist who believes there is no God. Anyone the star quarterback. Anyone—the guy sitting on the bench. Anyone—the person with bitterness and unforgiveness in their heart. Anyone-the person living in open sin in defiance of God’s word.
When Jesus says anyone—Jesus gets rid off all the excuses we have for not following after God. He puts us all on the same level playing field and asks us. What about you? Who do you say I am? Do you want to be a follower? According the CS Lewis, You have to accept that Jesus was either a liar, a legend, a lunatic or the Son of God. A good moral teacher is not an option because he would have led people away from God by his teachings.
Many of us are like Moses. God wants to use us, but we want to do something else with our lives, and we are afraid God will change our plans. To be honest that’s a good understanding of who God is and what God does. You deceive yourself, if you think you can accept Jesus as your Savior, and then continue to do as you please. If you’re truly a child of God, you can expect God’s discipline.
Moses kept coming up with excuses. People know my history as a murderer and fugitive. People don’t think I can be trusted. People think I am liar. I can’t speak that well. I might mess up the miracles you’ve shown me how to do. God is probably thinking, “Really, do you really think everything rests on your talents and abilities.” Moses finally gets to the heart of the matter, “Please just choose somebody else. Moses didn’t mind being a fan of God, but he didn’t want to be a follower.
Jesus did not separate the invitation from the cost. He didn’t walk through the crowds saying, “Is there is anyone, anyone, anyone over there. He kept the invitation with the real cost connected. He said "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
To come after Jesus, is going to take some initiative and decision making on our part. Most people would prefer to have Jesus tie a rope around them and force them to go with him. But Jesus doesn’t want to tie a rope around us. He wants us to tie our hearts around him, by making him first in our list of priorities. If you’re following Jesus, you simply can’t follow everything else.
Be honest, what has your heart. What is it that you want more than anything else.
For the disciples of Jesus, this call to follow Him meant the forsaking of everything else. They couldn’t follow Jesus and stay at their job of going fishing each day. For us, it may come to mean the very same thing You see, your life boils down to nothing more than your priorities - Mat. 6:33. Seek first the kingdom of God. You go where you want to go. You do what you want to do. You follow who and what you want to follow. You are willing to do what you love to do! The Lord's call is for us to focus our hearts upon Him and go with Him wherever He leads us.
David said it like this, “One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.”, Psalm 27:4.
Paul said it like this, Philippians 3:13-14 (NIV2011)
13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,
14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Both of these are instances of single-minded devotion to follow the Lord wherever He leads.
What has your heart today? Who or what is on first in your life? May the Lord help us all to come to the place where nothing in our lives means more to us that Jesus Christ and His leadership. May He become and remain the central focus of every individual heart in this room and of this church as a body!
Jesus gives the part two to the Anyone or Whoever by saying, They must must deny themselves and pick up their cross and follow me.
Deny themselves - This phrase literally means, “to completely disown, to utterly separate oneself from someone.” It is the same word used to describe Peter's denial of Jesus outside the high priests home, Matt. 26:34! Do you remember how Peter tried to convince everyone that he did not know Jesus? That’s how we are to talk to ourselves when we’re being called away from Jesus. It sounds hard because it is hard! Self does like to be denied, but until it is, we cannot possibly follow after Jesus like He desires for us to!
Jesus adds in the same size print. Take up his/their cross.
Take up his cross - When Jesus spoke of the cross, everyone in His audience knew what He was referring to. Some have estimated that over 30,000 Jews were crucified during the lifetime of Jesus alone. When Jesus says that we are to take up our cross, He is saying that we are to live as dead men and women!
You see, to take up ones cross was to start upon a “death march”. Their walk under that cross always ended up with them on that cross. They began a process from which there was no retreating and no turning back. To take up your cross was to embrace the death of self! This is just what Jesus did when He came to this world - Matt. 16:21-23; John 19, Mark 10:45. He set the example that we are to follow.
To understand what this cross Jesus refers to is, we need to talk about what it isn't. Our cross isn’t putting up with people we don’t like. It’s not the pain in our bodies, or the hard times we are going through. It’s not even the crazy people in our families. That’s just life.
The cross is not just a place of suffering, it is a place of death! It is a voluntary choice to say yes to God.
To take up one's cross means to willingly pick up and carry the shame,( A person under a cross in Jesus' day drew jeers!), the rejection, the suffering and the death that Jesus Himself willingly carried for us. To take up your cross means that you are willing to identify yourself with Jesus Christ regardless of the cost to you personally, publicly or financially.
Following Jesus is going to cost you something and Jesus tells you that before you choose to become a follower. It’s not popular today to tell the truth about sin as seen from God’s viewpoint. Will you tell it anyways? How did Jesus know that we would not be popular in society?
Follow me - We are called upon to take up that cross, once for all, and go after Jesus. Discipleship is not simply a door to be entered but a path to be followed, and the disciple proves that his discipleship is genuine by following that path to the end.
We are not to back out, turn around, or lay down the cross. We are to die on that cross, giving our all for His glory! That’s what a follower does.
This phrase has the idea of being willing to go all the way for Jesus - no holds barred and no turning back - just a steady, humble walk that follows His footsteps and His path through this world. Jesus said it as simply as it could possibly be said, John 12:26, “If any one serve me, let him/her follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: all who serve me, they will my Father honour.” Who do you want your honor to come from today. Who do you want it to come from as you take your last breath going out into eternity.
If you want to be saved, you can be, but there's only one way that will ever happen. That is through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ. God is inflexible and firm on that point. In fact, He has stated it this way, “Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”, John 14:6. God has made up His mind about that matter. If you want to be saved, you can be, but only on His terms.
Friends, He is just as inflexible when it comes to this matter of being His disciple! If you want to move from being a fan to a follower, then you will have to meet Jesus on His terms. You see, you can have as much or as little of God as you want. The question is, what do you want? Are you a happy fan or a follower who wants more of Christ in your life?
If you want to be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, then I invite you to hear and take seriously the words of the Jesus . Then, come before Him, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Him. Until that happens in your life, you will never experience all God has for you.
And that’s what Jesus offers. The greatest teacher who ever lived offers you the chance to become one of his students. And when he says anyone, he means everyone. And with no qualifications, you’ve got no excuse. But even though He makes his invitation to anyone, He also guarantees that it will cost you everything. Are you ready? Are you willing to follow the rabbi Jesus?
