Follow Him

Read from Luke 14:25-35

A true disciple of Christ is someone who is “committed” to follow Him wherever He may lead him. He is not just involved in His teachings, he is committed to follow and obey.

The difference between the words “commitment” and “involvement” reminds me a story of the pig and the chicken who went to church and saw a church bulletin about mission projects. The pig asked the chicken what can they do to help the poor and the chicken suggested that they feed them with ham and eggs. And obviously, the pig did not like the idea. Why? Well, famous tennis player Martina Navratilova puts it this way: “The difference between involvement and commitment is like ham and eggs. The chicken is involved; the pig is committed.” That is a big difference! The chicken only had to squat… wiggle and push a little bit and you can have eggs, so the chicken is involved. But the pig has to give up his life for us to get ham or bacon, the pig is committed. So every time you eat ham and egg … please remember the words “commitment” and “involvement.”

The word “disciple” comes from Greek word “mathetes” meaning learner, follower or pupil. The other word that is used interchangeably even in the Gospel is the word “apostle.” Which comes from the Greek word “apostolos” means a messenger, a delegate, someone who is sent to preach the Gospel.

In the opening statement of the reference verses that we read said that a “large crowd” was following Jesus. The King James version describes it as “a great multitude.

Jesus obviously was gaining popularity at this point. People are following Him wherever He went. The sad thing is… and Jesus knew this… that a lot of these crowd were just “onlookers.” They follow Christ because He was popular, He was making miracles, healing the sick, making the blind see, making the lame walk. He drove out evil spirits, He was teaching about the Kingdom of God… so people wanted to be close to somebody as popular as Jesus.

For hundreds of years, the Jews were waiting for the Messiah and most of them were probably thinking, this could be the Messiah who would finally establish an earthly Kingdom and free Israel from the oppression and crush the Roman empire.

I would imagine the scenario where this large crowd was following Jesus and He suddenly looked back and posed this really serious question:

Do you really want to be My disciple?

He is actually asking the same thing from us today. He wants “hams” and not “eggs.” He wants commitment more than mere involvement.

LIFE LESSONS:

Lesson #1: Like the crowd, we can always follow Jesus superficially but not genuinely (v25)

There are followers of Christ who are just going through the motion. They go church out of habit or tradition. They profess that they are Christians but live a different kind of life. They follow Christ because they make Him the genie in a bottle, treating Him like a vending machine… meaning, we just call Him whenever we need something but when everything is good, smooth, and life is comfortable… they tend to forget who they truly are and forget about Him.

The Bible says in Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”

Lesson #2: When we follow Him, we should seriously count the cost (v26-32)

We know that salvation is free. It’s a gift. The Bible says in Ephesians 2:8 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” So it’s free. Salvation is free but it is not cheap. It was paid for by the blood of Christ. Justification is free but sanctification is not. Salvation is free but discipleship is not.
The cost of discipleship:
(a) We must hate our families and ourselves (v26)
(b) We must carry our own cross (v27)
(c) We must give up our possessions (v33)

The apostle Paul said “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20

Following Christ means becoming His own. 

Following Christ means being crucified with him.

PRAYER

Wherever you are, whatever you situation you may be -- you need the love of Jesus in your life.
Please say this prayer sincerely from your heart:  

Father God, I confess all my sins to you today.  Please forgive me.  Today, I open my heart to your Son Jesus Christ.  I accept Him in my life as my Savior and as my Lord.  May the Holy Spirit come to my life and make me the kind of person you want me to be.  In Jesus Name, I pray.  Amen.

(The above article is an excerpt from a sermon delivered at WCF Richmond on  October 19, 2014)

(I apologize if there are grammatical and spelling errors.  

If you are looking for a church in British Columbia, Canada please visit our website for more information at www.wordchristianfellowship.com)