Introduction
Jesus tests their faith and ours. What 3 things must we be willing to do. To really follow Christ means to forsake all.
Jesus uses shocking terms here. Jesus must be first before everything.
V18-20 People make excuses to not come to His super. All the pharisees and the scribes were rejecting Christ, refusing Him and His gospel.
You cannot be His disciple unless:
1 – You hate the people you hold most dear V26
He is personalizing it. Family is not first. Love for Christ comes first. It reveals how much Jesus deserves our love. He is not teaching us to hate our family, neighbor as He commands us too. The point is He must come first above all.
““He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.” – Matthew 10:37 NASB1995
We can’t comprise the gospel for the sake of our family. The gospel divides and it divides family.
2 – Unless you hate the thing you love most dear your own life. V26
“yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple”
We love ourselves. And we love ourselves more than others. We have to forsake self and selfishness. Our will is not our own it belongs to God. When we are a disciple we now go where He goes. We must be slaves to Him.
Galatians 2:20 (NKJV) “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the [life] which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
Living is dying.
Matthew 10:39 (NKJV) “He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.
3 – Unless you suffer and maybe even die V27
This is pre-cross Christ so they aren’t thinking of this yet. The cross was very well known as an instrument of execution. Criminals would be made to carry their own cross to their death. It was an excruciating and shameful way to die. Jesus uses this to teach what we should expect when we follow Him. It will be painful, shameful and may even cost us our lives. It will mean we will be persecuted for following Christ.
We bear the cross when we lose friends, family, jobs, or maybe even our very life. V33. Not exactly a motivational speech.
We need to tell people the truth of the heavy cost of following Christ.
Luke 14:25-33 (NKJV) 25 Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. 27 “And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. 28 “For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has [enough] to finish [it]– 29 “lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see [it] begin to mock him, 30 “saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 “Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 “Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. 33 “So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.