Jesus said, “If Anyone Comes After Me and Does Not…” (Luke 14:25-26)

In Luke 14:26 Jesus said, “If anyone comes after me and does not…” and then he listed things that make it seem like He tried to discourage people from following Him. In this sermon we looked at a few other examples of this happening. Because if Jesus said these things in His day and they’re recorded for us, then we should hear the same thing in our day so that we know what is involved in following Him. Table of ContentsFamily Worship GuideSermon NotesJesus said, “If anyone comes after me,” they must (lesson one) sacrifice.Jesus said, “If anyone comes after me,” they must (lesson two) repent.Jesus said, “If anyone comes after me,” they must (lesson three) spiritually understand.Jesus said, “If anyone comes after me,” they must (lesson four) take the hard way. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_I-0ZGkjO_4 In Luke 14:26 Jesus said, “If anyone comes after me and does not…” and then listed things that seem like He didn't want people following Him. Family Worship Guide Directions: Read the verses and then answer the questions: Day 1: Luke 14:25-27—How is Jesus NOT like military recruiters? How might you expect Jesus to address large crowds? How does it seem like Jesus did address large crowds? What are the different reasons people followed Jesus? Why should people follow Jesus? Describe some of the sacrifices we are expected to make to follow Christ. Day 2: Mark 10:17-23—Describe the rich young ruler’s attitude toward Jesus. Why did Jesus say that nobody is good except God? Why did Jesus share the 10 Commandments with the rich young ruler? Why did Jesus tell the rich young ruler to sell all his possessions? Do we have to sell all our possessions? Why or why not? Why do you think Jesus didn’t go after him? Day 3: John 6:2-66, 1 Corinthians 2:14, Matthew 7:14—Why was such a large crowd following Jesus? What did Jesus mean when he said that people didn’t see the sign? Why did Jesus say he was the bread that came down from heaven? Why didn’t the people understand what Jesus was talking about? Why do you think Jesus didn’t try to clarify things for everyone? Why do you think Jesus so graphically described eating his flesh and drinking his blood WITHOUT saying that he was speaking spiritually? Why did Jesus say, “The way is hard that leads to life”? Sermon Notes The title of this morning’s sermon is, “If Anyone Comes After Me.” On Sunday mornings we’re working our way through Luke’s gospel verse by verse and we find ourselves at chapter 14, verse 25. Please stand with me for the reading of God’s Word. Luke 14:25 Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. You may be seated. Let’s pray. In college I went through Army ROTC, and after graduation I served as an officer. My military experience allowed me to have some familiarity with recruiters. Used car salesmen have the reputation for being dishonest and saying whatever’s necessary to make a sale. SOME military recruiters are a close second. Please notice I said some because I do think there are also some honest recruiters. Military recruiters must satisfy what’s known as “commission mission.” Their performance is determined by the number of people they’re able to recruit. As a result, they strive to make the military sound as attractive as possible, which creates a strong temptation for them to lie. After looking at a few articles, here are the top lies I could find that military recruiters tell people: There’s a great chance you’ll be stationed wherever you want. There’s almost no chance of you being sent to a combat zone. You’ll receive a large signing bonus. They don’t yell at you in boot camp anymore. You can quit any time if you don’t like it. There are horror stories of people who were promised things before they signed on the dotted line, only to find their military careers ended up being considerably different than what the recruiter promised. I tell you all this, because after I became a Christian in my early 20’s and started reading the Gospels, I saw that Jesus is the opposite of military recruiters in two ways… First, He was honest: He told people the truth. He wanted them to know what to expect if they followed Him. Second, it seems like He actually tried to DISCOURAGE people from signing up…yes, you heard me correctly! When you look at Jesus’ interactions with people, you’d almost think He didn’t want them following Him. Look at Luke 14:25… Luke 14:25 Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, Notice it says great crowds. I can’t say how many people this was, but I’m guessing if Jesus could miraculously feed tens of thousands of people, which happened on at least two occasions, we are talking about at least thousands of people again. Picture what this looked like, and let me ask you to think about something… What would you expect many popular religious leaders to think at a moment like this with such a large crowd following them? Wow, this is great. Lots of people are following me. I better make sure I don’t mess this up and tell them something they don’t want to hear. What wonderful, encouraging thing can I say that will cause them to want to continue following me, and hopefully tell their friends so they start following me as well. This is clearly not what Jesus was thinking. It seems like whenever Jesus had a large crowd following him, he said things that would make it a small crowd. Look at verse 26… Luke 14:26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. And it gets worse… Luke 14:27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. Jesus recognized when the crowds were bloated and He needed to trim the fat. He could tell when people were following him for the wrong reasons: Sometimes they wanted to see a miracle Sometimes they want to be healed Sometimes they wanted to hear what he had to say Sometimes they were just curious And I’m not even saying that these are bad reasons for people to follow Jesus. But Jesus knew that their commitment was shallow. Once sacrifice or suffering was required, they would turn back. We are going to look at a few examples this morning of times Jesus said things that caused people to turn back from following him, so we can see what is involved if we follow him. Also, I’m convinced that if Jesus said these things in his day that caused people to turn back from him, and they’re recorded for us in Scripture, then we should hear the same thing in our day so that they can again turn away people with shallow commitments. It isn’t to say that we want people to turn people away from following Christ, but it is to say that there is value in separating the wheat from the chaff. So let’s look at the first thing Jesus said that caused people to turn back…and this brings us to lesson one… Jesus said, “If anyone comes after me,” they must (lesson one) sacrifice. We aren’t going to dig into verses 26 and 27 until next sermon, but the main point is following Jesus requires sacrifice. I’m not exaggerating when I say this… I cannot think of anything that would sound worse to people than what Jesus said in these verses: Hate your father, mother, wife, children, brothers, and sisters Hate your own life Be willing to carry a cross to be crucified If you wanted people to stop following you, what could you say that would do the trick better than this? This is the opposite of: Prosperity preaching Health and wealth Or name it and claim Picture the typical easy-believism, seeker sensitive American church… Can you imagine if the pastor reached the end of his sermon and instead of saying: Repeat this prayer after me. Say these words and you’ll be saved. He said, “If anyone comes [after Jesus] and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be [his] disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after [Jesus] cannot be [his] disciple.” How many people would respond to that invitation? How many people would raise their hands? How many people would walk down the aisle? Not many! You say, “Maybe Jesus was only talking to the twelve disciples?” There are times Jesus spoke to specific people: Sometimes He spoke to the religious leaders. Sometimes He spoke to the twelve disciples. And sometimes he spoke to everyone, and this is one of those times: Notice the words if anyone at the beginning of verse 27. Notice the word whoever at the beginning of verse 28. Notice the words for which of you at the beginning of verse 29. He couldn’t make it clearer that he’s addressing everyone. And I’d like to show you some other examples of Jesus speaking like this to those following Him, so you can see it’s a theme. Turn to Mark 10. This is Jesus’s interaction with the Rich Young Ruler… Mark 10:17 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” How does this young man look? He looks zealous – he ran up to Jesus He looks humble – he knelt before him He looks respectful – he called him Good Teacher He looks sincere – he asked one of the most important questions anyone could ever ask: What must I do to inherit eternal life: He is interested in spiritual matters. He believes in God. He wants to go to heaven. There’s a lot to like about him!