The Follower Of Jesus Christ

A Follower of Jesus

Scripture Reading: Luke 9:23-27; 57-62.

Introduction:

What does it mean to be a follower of Christ? What

does it take in order to follow him? What are the

requirements for be one of His? Does have your name on

the roll at a church make you a follower of Christ? Does

being a faithful supporter of a church make you a follower

of Christ? Does coming to church make you a follower of

Christ? All of these questions are very important issues

that one must deal with if they desire to be a follower of

Christ.

Jesus when he was here on earth dealt very

specifically with these questions. You see, when he was

here on earth he had lots of “followers”. Jesus performed

miracles and did many other signs and wonders and he

naturally drew a crowd. You’ve seen it happen before. If

someone seems to have great ability or is of great

personality or something, they will draw crowds. Jesus

drew the crowds. He had a lot of “followers” who were

just after what they could get from him. As long as he was

healing their diseases and filling their stomachs they

would follow him everywhere, but when it came down to

truly dedicated their hearts and lives to him, the list of

“followers” grew mighty short. In the Scripture reading

that I would like for us to examine closer this morning,

Jesus gives us the terms and the tests of discipleship.

Let’s read Luke 9:23-27 and 57-62 together this morning

and see what it has for us today.

There are five things from this passage of scripture

that I would like to notice about a True Follower of Jesus.

Notice with me:

I. To Be a Follower of Jesus You Must Count the Cost.

v. 23, 62.

All throughout this passage of Scripture Jesus is

emphasizing the fact that if you truly are going to follow

him you must count the cost. You see, it costs something

to follow Christ. There is a price that you are going to

have to pay to follow him. Jesus told the rich young ruler

to sell all that he had and give it to the poor, but the rich

young ruler went away sorrowful. You see, there is a cost

to serving Jesus. He says in verse 23 of our scripture

today that you must deny yourself, take up your cross daily

and follow him.

There is more to being a Christian than just saying

you believe in him. Jesus had a lot of people who followed

him around, but most of them were not true followers of

him. Most of them weren’t willing to count the cost and

take up their cross and follow him.

Friends, I am here to tell you this morning that if you

truly take up your cross and follow him. If you truly

decide to follow Christ, there is going to be some cost

involved. This world is no friend of Grace, people of this

world will mock you and make fun of you. Look what

they did to Jesus, they mocked him, spit on him, if they did

it to him, they will do it to us. When you become a

disciple of Christ, there will be cost involved. It may mean

giving up some things, that you may enjoy doing. It may

mean surrendering a favorite sin of yours. Jesus demands

our total commitment. He demands our total devotion.

But the cost of being a follower of Christ is far outweighed

by the rewards for doing so. Some day, the things that

seemed so huge will seem so small. I remember, as I was

wanting to serve God, but there were some things that I

knew I would have to give up, there was some things that I

was going to have to make right, and the devil did his best

to make those things look so huge in my eyes. He told me

that I would never be able to do it. And I had to count the

cost, but let me tell you friends, when I surrendered to

Christ, he helped me to give up the things I had to give up,

and make right the things that I had to make right, and

now, those things look so small looking back on them. But

the devil made them seem so big, and he is going to do the

same to you, but you are going to have to count the cost

and be determined to follow Christ no matter what the

cost!

You must Count the Cost.

II. To Be a Follower of Christ You Must Cut the

Connections.

In our Scripture this morning, Jesus had people

coming up to him and telling them that they wanted to