Discipleship Matters: Passionately Committed to Jesus
Luke 14:25-35
Pastor Jefferson M. Williams
Chenoa Baptist Church
04-25-2021
Fan vs Fanilow
I’ve been asked if my love for Barry Manilow is real or a joke. I can assure you it is real. When I took piano lessons as a kid, one of the first songs I learned to play was “Mandy.”
[By the way, did you know that Barry write the jingle,”Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there?”]
Several years ago, a family actually paid me for doing a funeral with Barry Manilow tickets. ?
I’m a fan. But Lori McGill is a “fanilow.” There’s a big difference.
Lori is a 50 something second grade teacher from Long Island, New York. She’s married and has one son. And she has one love - Barry.
She has seen Barry Manilow in concert more than 300 times, including every night of his Broadway run. That’s $350 per ticket!
Her classroom is covered in pictures of Barry and her students wear Barry Manilow shirts on her birthday.
She says there are three magical days in her life - her wedding, the birth of her son, [slide] and the day she got to meet Barry.
I’m a fan. She’s a “fanilow.” There’s a big difference.
The Great Commission
Two weeks ago, we began our new series “Discipleship Matters” and I said that this may be the most important sermon series I’ve ever preached.
We studied “The Great Commission,” our marching orders as a church, from Matthew 28:
[slide] “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20)
We learned that the main verb in this sentence is “make disciples” and we do that by “going, baptizing, and teaching.”
I proposed three declarations for our church:
We will be a church that trusts Jesus’ authority.
We will be a church that trust’s His strategy.
We will be a church that depends on His Presence.
If you missed that sermon, you can go back and watch it on our Facebook page.
In that sermon, I went through a list of characteristics that define a disciple from Pastor Dennis Rouse of Victory Church in Georgia:
A disciple is: passionate committed to Jesus Christ, they have an extraordinary love for people, they have the heart of a servant, they are sensitive and submitted to the Holy Spirit, they are governed by the authority of God’s Word, they live morally pure and they are evangelistic bold, they are engaged in Biblical community, they are just and generous, and they live their lives with purpose and on mission.
Several people said to me afterwards that this list was hard to hear because they didn’t see some of these characteristics in their lives.
So I thought we would take a few weeks and go some of this list to help us understand what a disciple of Jesus Christ looks like.
This morning, we will learn that a disciple is passionately committed to Jesus Christ.
Passion is defined as a strong feeling toward something or an emotion that motivates beyond normal living.
Humans are passionate beings. We are passionate about our sports teams and our hobbies. We are passionately about our politics and our pet causes. We are passionate about music and making money and oatmeal butterscotch cookies.
But what would happen if we were just as passionate about follow Jesus?
Turn with me to Luke 14.
Prayer
Fan or Follower?
In Luke 14, Jesus has been invited to eat at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees and he healed a man with drospy and then challenged them about healing on the Sabbath. He gave them two parables - the parable of the wedding feast and the parable of the great banquet to try to help them understand who was welcome in the kingdom of heaven.
Let’s pick it up at verses 25:
“Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them He said…” (Luke 14:25)
By this time, wherever Jesus went there were crowds around Him. Some estimate the crowds were in thousands. They were traveling along with Him.
Many were simply fans. They wanted to see Him do a magic trick. They wanted some more bread. They loved to see Him confound the religious rulers.
But there were some in the crowd that were genuine followers. Could you tell the difference by just looking at them? Not at all.
It’s the same today. There are many fans of Jesus. They go to church. They’re “good people.” But they are not followers.
What’s the difference? Pastor Rouse gives us a few:
A fan believes Jesus is Savior but lives to please themselves.
A follower believes Jesus is Lord and lives to please God.
A fan exalts their own opinions, feelings and thoughts above the Word of God.
A follower exalts the Word of God above their opinions, thoughts, and feelings.
A fan seeks to know God through religion ritual.
A follower seeks to know God through a personal relationship.
A fan follows God as long as everything is gong well.
A follower follows God regardless of the circumstances.
What’s another name for a genuine follower? A disciple of Jesus.
Remember that a disciple is simply a follower of Jesus, one who follows His teaching.
A rabbi would have disciples and they would “walk in his dust,” literally following them around and learning as they went.
Jesus turns around and addresses the crowd and what He says is mind-shattering to these individuals and to us if we have ears to hear.
We call these verses one of the “hard saying” of Jesus. It’s not hard to understand. It’s difficult to live it in our own strength.
A disciple loves Jesus more than any earthly relationship.
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple..” (Luke 14:26)
Wait. What? Jesus, this is not the way to grow a platform. This is not the way to increase your crowd size.
Jesus wasn’t interested in the size of the crowds. He was interested in individuals who were willing to be passionately committed to Him.
First, notice He said, “If anyone comes to me…”. This is the call of salvation that is available to all regardless of who they were or what they had done. It didn’t matter their age, their cultural background, their race, or their gender. The invitation is open to all to be His disciples.
Jesus said,
“Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” (John 6:35)
But Jesus sets the conditions and the terms of discipleship.
Second, we are to “hate” our families?
I thought that the fifth commandment told us to “honor our mother and father?” (Exodus 20:12).
And doesn’t Ephesians teach husbands to “love their wives as Christ loves the church?” (Ephesians 5:25)
And didn’t Jesus say for us to even “love our enemies and pray for those who persecute you?” (Matthew 5:43)
And doesn’t Paul say that if you don’t care for your family you are “worse than an unbeliever?” (I Timothy 5:8)
What does Jesus mean by this?
The best interpreter of Scripture is Scripture itself. So let’s turn to Matthew 10:37 and I think what Jesus is trying to say will make more sense:
“Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” (Matthew 10:37)
Jesus is saying that compared to your love for Him, that is so superior so supreme, every other relationship will look like hate.
An expert in the law once asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was. Jesus answered:
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Matthew 22:37-39)
If we are passionately committed to Jesus, if He is our supreme treasure, then we will actually love our parents, siblings, and spouses, and children better.
Third, did you notice that little phrase “yes, even your own life?” Believe me, the people in the crowds that day didn’t miss that.
American Churchianity says to live your best life now, to find yourself, to increase your self esteem, and that you must learn to love ourselves.
That’s not Biblical Christianity. We already love ourselves too much. That’s why Jesus calls us to die to ourselves:
“Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” (John 12:25)
And Paul said it this way:
“For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” (Phil 1:21)
Jesus says that unless you love Him above all earthly relationship, including your own life, you CANNOT be His disciple.
Jesus said;
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:33)
A couple of weeks ago, I attended the Gospel Coalition National Conference and one of the speakers was a pastor from Providence Church in Frisco, Texas named Afshin Ziafat. He is originally from Iran and was a Muslim. When he converted to Christianity, his father, who is was very close to, told him that he was ashamed of him but if he went to med school he would try to have a relationship with him.
Afshin felt called to ministry and when he told his father he was going to seminary his father responded, “Then you are dead to me.”
He didn’t see his dad for the last 30 years of his life. Afshin admitted that this hurt terribly but Jesus was His primary passion and He had to follow Him no matter what.
Do you love Jesus more than your spouse? More than your kids? More than your parents? More than your plans? More than your life?
A Disciple Follows Jesus by Taking Up his Cross
Imagine the people in the crowds trying to wrap their heads around hating their families and then Jesus continues by dropping this truth bomb on their souls:
“And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:27)
We wear crosses around our necks, get them tattooed on our bodies, and put them on our tombstones.
But this first century crowd would be horrified by this.
There was no misunderstanding. Many of them, maybe all of them, had witnessed a crucifixion. The Romans didn’t invent crucifixion but they perfected it.
It was done publicly and was designed to inflict the maximum amount of shame and pain to the person.
The convicted person would be made to carry the cross beam through the streets publicly. They were literally the walking dead.
To glorify the cross to them would be shocking.
It would be the equivalent of us wearing an electric chair around our necks.
What is Jesus saying to them, and to us?
He’s saying that we are die to ourselves, to the world, to our old way of life and follow Jesus.
A.W. Tozer describes a person being crucified: they are facing only one way, they are not going back and they have no further plans.
“Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.” (Matt 10:39)
In verse 26, Jesus says “come to me”. Now He says, “follow me.”
He didn’t say to follow to the church, a denomination, a ministry, a certain pastor, a cause. He is calling disciples to passionate, life-long pursuit of him.
And where do we follow him to? A hill called Golgotha.
Paul said this to the Galatians:
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” (Gal 2:20)
In fact, that is what baptism represents - being identified with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.
An American pastor was talking to a pastor in a country where it is illegal to be a Christian. The American pastor asked him how they handled nominal Christianity. The other pastor looked confused and finally said that when someone committed their lives to Christ in his country, there was a very good chance that their business would be burned down and they would be killed, most of the time by their own family. Then he paused and said, “We don’t have nominal Christians.”
They know they are signing their death warrants by getting baptized but the church continues to explode.
Nabil Habashi Salama, an Egyptian Christian was kidnapped and was held hostage and tortured in an attempt to get him to renounce his faith. His son mentioned that while they broke all of his teeth he refused to give up his faith.
This past Saturday, they released a video in which they executed Nabil.
Pastors there are not telling people that God wants to them to be rich, healthy, and happy. They are telling them to write their wills before their baptism.
Paul described his experience of the Christian life this way:
“I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.” (2 Cor 11:23-27)
Can you imagine Jesus staring intently at the crowd and saying, “any takers?”
He still asked that question. He is claiming authority over the disciples very life.
Have you gone “all in” with Jesus? Are you willing to die for the sake of the kingdom?
A Disciple counts the cost of following Jesus
Jesus continues by telling two short stories to drive home His point.
“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’”
Towers were common sights in their culture. You could build a lookout tower or it could have been a tower in a vineyard.
Before building the tower, a wise person will count the cost to see if they can afford to build.
In an honor/shame culture, not finishing the tower would bring deep embarrassment to the family.
When I worked at Salem Children’s Home, I drove past a concrete foundation for a building that didn’t exist. They literally ran out of money when trying to build it.
Jesus is making the point to the crowd that they needed to count the cost of following Him.
John Stott made this observation:
“The Christian landscape is strewn with the wreckage of derelict, half built towers—the ruins of those who began to build and were unable to finish. For thousands of people still ignore Christ’s warning and undertake to follow him without first pausing to reflect on the cost of doing so. The result is the great scandal of Christendom today, so called “nominal Christianity.” In countries to which Christian civilization has spread, large numbers of people have covered themselves with a decent, but thin, veneer of Christianity. They have allowed themselves to become somewhat involved, enough to be respectable but not enough to be uncomfortable. Their religion is a great, soft cushion. It protects them from the hard unpleasantness of life, while changing its place and shape to suit their convenience. No wonder the cynics speak of hypocrites in the church and dismiss religion as escapism…”
Many times we present the Gospel in such a way that people think it’s just about repeating someone else’s prayer, or walking an aisle or signing a card.
When I would speak at youth camps, I would share the Gospel and then give an invitation. It was not uncommon to have 30 -40 students at the stage by the end of the song. I would then call the youth workers up and they would take those students and walk them through the Gospel and asked them if that’s why they went forward. Then they would bring the rest to me and I would walk them through the cost of following Jesus. By the time this process was through, there would be two or three students left. But how easy it would have been for me to report that 40 students got saved?!
There is a cost to following Jesus. J.D. Greer writes:
“Salvation is free. It costs you nothing. But following Jesus will inevitably cost you something…maybe everything.”
The second story involves the cost of not following Jesus:
“Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace.” (Luke 14:31-32)
At this point, I can imagine the crowd getting very uncomfortable. Someone of them probably have left already.
There is a King coming against our personal kingdom. He came the first time as a Lamb but the second time He will come as a Lion.
Every knee will bow to this King. Some will bow in reverence, awe, and overwhelming gratitude. Others will bow in abject terror. But all will kneel before the King of Kings.
What should we do when faced with such overwhelming odds in battle? Seek terms of peace. The terms are so gracious. He will cover your sins. All you have to do is surrender. Wave the white flag.
That’s what He means in verse 33:
“In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.” (Luke 14:33)
At this point, I imagine that many in the crowds shook their heads and walked away muttering to themselves, “Who does this guy think He is?”
Does this mean we need to sell our house and live under a bridge? No. With the decision to wave the white flag you became a steward of all and an owner of none. Everything you have is now at Jesus’ disposal to use to advance the Kingdom.
Your time, talents, treasures. Your house, your cars, your stuff.
We own a lot of stuff in this culture and sometimes our stuff owns us.
I was on a zoom call with a group of pastors this week and we were listening to a lecture by Dr. Benjamin Gladd, Associate Professor of New Testament at the seminary I graduated from Reformed Theological Seminary.
He told the story of being at the movies with his kids and in-laws last Thanksgiving when the got the call that their house was on fire. They lost everything. All they had left was the clothes on their backs.
That night, at a hotel, they told the kids that most of the time stuff gets put in the dumpster after you die. It just happened to them a little earlier through the fire. And they held hands and worshipped.
Would that be your response to losing everything, all your stuff, in a fire?
A Disciple is the Salt of the World
“Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out.
“Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”
In that culture, salt was used a preservative. Obviously, They didn’t have refrigerators so they would salt meat down so it would last longer.
But salt from the Dead Sea contained gypsum and it was not pure. It could go bad and would become tasteless.
You couldn’t put it in the fields because it would kill the crops. You wouldn’t even put in on the manure pile to help with the smell.
This useless salt would be spread on the road.
Jesus said the same thing in the Sermon on the Mount:
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.” (Matthew 5:13)
Just as tasteless salt is useless, a person that claims to follows Jesus but doesn’t honor Jesus above all earthly relationships, who doesn’t carry their cross, who isn’t willing to surrender everything, cannot be His disciple.
I heard someone say it this way. Imagine that at 10:30 I wasn’t here. Everyone sits patiently waiting until I come running in, out of breath, to the auditorium.
I tell you that I had a flat tire and had to get out and fix it on the highway. While I was fixing the flat, I lost my balance and fell into the lane and was hit by a semi. But I dusted myself off and here I am. Let’s start the sermon.
You would know one of two things. Either I am a liar or I am very deceived. I would look at a lot different if I was hit by a semi.
David Platt finished the illustration by saying this:
“When a person comes face to face with God in the flesh, the Savior, King, and Sovereign Lord, and He reaches down into your heart and saves you from the clutches of sin and self, you’re going to look different…you’re going to look really different. Everything changes when you follow this King.”
Do you have ears to hear this morning?
Application Questions
1. Do you love Jesus more than your family?
2. Are you willing to suffering for the sake of the Savior?
3. Have you counted the cost of being a disciple?
4. Have you surrendered everything to Him?
John Bunyan was told if he continued preaching that he would be put in prison. He had a wife and children and they barely had enough to eat and, on top of that, one of his children was blind.
But he couldn’t stop preaching. He was sent to prison for 14 years. He wrote from the jail;
“Parting with my wife and poor children has often been to me in this place as the pulling of flesh from my bones. And that not only because I am fond of these great mercies {talking about this family] but also because I’ve often brought my mind the many hardships, miseries, and wants that my poor family is likely to be meeting with, especially my poor blind child that lay nearer to my heart than all I have besides…but yet, I must venture all with God.”
The Fellowship of the Unashamed
The Fellowship of the Unashamed. It’s from a book entitled, “Words Aptly Spoken” by Dr. Bob Moorehead. According to Dr. Moorehead’s son, a man in Africa who was murdered for his faith had a copy of this prayer on him when he was martyred.
I am part of the fellowship of the unashamed. I have Holy Spirit power.
The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I am a disciple of His. I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away or be still.
My past is redeemed. My present makes sense. My future is secure. I’m finished with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, worldly talking, cheap giving, and dwarfed goals.
I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudity, or popularity. I don’t have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded or rewarded. I now live by faith, lean on His presence, walk by patience, am uplifted by prayer and labor by power.
My pace is set. My gait is fast. My goal is heaven. My road is narrow. My way rough. My companions few. My guide is reliable and my mission is clear.
I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, deluded or delayed.
I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of the adversary, negotiate at the table of the enemy, pander at the pool of popularity or meander in the maze of mediocrity.
I won’t give up, shut up, let up, until I’ve stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up, preached up for the cause of Christ.
I am a disciple of Jesus. I must go till He comes, give ’til I drop, preach till all know, and work till He stops me. And when He comes for His own, He’ll have no problem recognizing me. My banner will be clear!
