Follow The Leader
Notes
Transcript
“Follow The Leader”
.
Did you play follow the leader when you were a kid?
Do you still play follow the leader as an adult?
Yes, you really do! This morning, you are following someone! Someone or something is leading you.
As a born again Christian, the Lord Jesus is supposed to be our leader; and we should be following him! But let’s be honest, not everyone who comes to church is following Jesus in their life. But they should be!
The Lord Jesus has called us from our sin, washed us in his blood; saved our soul, and indwells us by the Holy Spirit. And in turn, Jesus calls us to follow him. What do we call a person who is following Jesus? We called them a disciple! A disciple is a learner, follower, apprentice of the Lord Jesus.
Now it is important to keep in mind that Jesus is not primarily talking about salvation in these verses; he’s talking about discipleship.
Nobody is saved from their sin because they follow Jesus; we are saved because we have trusted Jesus Christ as our Savior who died on the cross for our sins! But after we are saved, we begin to follow Jesus as our Lord and leader.
Following Jesus is not a requirement of salvation; it is the proof of salvation!
Repentance means you turn from self and sin to the Savior; which leads to a life of following Jesus. You don’t meet the Lord Jesus, and walk away and go back to your old life! Coming to know Jesus as your Savior, radically changes the direction of your life!
So what does it mean to follow Jesus?
The first disciples started following Jesus thinking it meant, worldwide fame, great wealth, and political power. They thought that the Messiah, would overthrow the Roman government and set up an earthly kingdom; and they would be a part of his cabinet.
And there are people today, who think that following Jesus means you should be, healthy, wealthy and wise. The name it and claim it, and blab it and grab it preachers on TV, teach that if you have enough faith in Jesus will make you rich.
And many people wish there was some easier way to follow Jesus, one that doesn’t put too many demands on them. That Jesus would just endorse their plans, and let them live as they please. And as long as they have the plaque on the front porch that says, “As for me and my house we will serve the Lord”. Jesus should just let them live life the way they want to.
When we said we wanted to follow Jesus, what we meant was, we would follow Jesus as long as he was going the same direction we were going.
But that is not the way it works!
Jesus teaches us in these verses what it means to follow him, what is involved in being his disciple.
Notice the context:
· Jesus has revealed his person.
-“The Christ of God”.
Jesus has revealed to his disciples who he is, the son of God.
· Jesus has revealed his work.
-“The Son of Man must suffer, be rejected, crucified, and be raised the third day”.
Jesus has revealed to his disciples why he came, to die on the cross and rise from the dead.
This is the first of three times in Luke’s Gospel that Jesus tells his disciples of his coming death and resurrection. But they didn’t get it, they couldn’t wrap their brain around Jesus being a suffering Savior.
But Jesus didn’t stop with revealing his person and work; now he reveals his plan for their lives.
As Jesus was to suffer and die, his disciples were to be prepared to suffer and die to self, in order to follow him.
Don’t miss this…being a disciple, follower of Jesus means more than knowing who Jesus is, and what he came to do; it means following him all the way to death.
V:23-“If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me”.
This is Jesus own definition of what it means to be his follower, his disciple. This is a far cry, from saying to someone just say these words, and you will go to heaven. Real salvation takes place, when the Holy Spirit brings you to a place of brokenness and repentance over your sin, turning loose of everything, and receive Jesus by faith!
Now I know what you’re thinking, you’re thinking that some followers of Jesus may be sold out, but not all followers of Jesus have to be radically sold out; how wrong you are!
V:23-“If any man…
This means anyone who wants to follow Jesus without exception; needs to understand what following him means. There are not two paths of discipleship; there’s only one path and Jesus lays it out for us in these verses.
In these verses we make three discoveries about discipleship.
First we discover:
1. The Requirements of Discipleship.
V:23.
As Jesus lays out the requirements of discipleship, he used three different verbs to describe what every disciple must do: deny, take up, and follow. These are really three different ways of saying the same thing, but each has a slightly different emphasis.
a. Deny your flesh.
V:23-“ if any man will come after me, let him deny himself…
What Jesus calls us to deny is ourselves, our sinful selves, with all the selfish desires of our fallen nature. Some Christians have falsely understood, denying yourself to mean being a weak person with no personality, and no strengths, or desires. NO! Others think it means to deny yourself of the pleasures and preferences of life. So make a long list of the things you enjoy, from eating chocolate, to milk and Oreos, and watching TV, and denying themselves these pleasures, in the name of self-denial. But that is not what Jesus is talking about. He is saying that if we want to follow him, we must put his will above our own.
We recognize his right to rule over our lives.
To deny ourselves means to reject anything and everything that would get in the way of offering ourselves for God’s service.
Let me tell you the name of the person in this church who gives me the most trouble. I am to call their name from this pulpit. The person in this church who gives me the most trouble is,
Eddie Bumpers. That joker gives me more trouble than everybody else in this church put together!
I have to battle with him, get a grip on him, tell him no, and deny what he wants every day.
Eddie is my biggest enemy!
Jesus says if I’m going to follow him, the first thing I must do is deny myself! That means saying no to sin, no to ungodly attitudes, no to unhealthy relationships, no to anger, no to things that waste my time, no to anything that saps my spiritual strength. What are you hanging on to that Jesus wants you to deny?
The second requirement of discipleship:
b. Carry your Cross.
V:23-“and take up his cross daily…
We have some messed up ideas about what it means to carry our crosses. A physical problem, noisy neighbors, your mother-in-law, is not your cross! None of those things are a cross you bear.
Today the cross is a symbol of Christianity, and our salvation. But when Jesus said this; the cross was an awful means of execution. To take up your cross meant death. In Jesus day, a condemned criminal was forced to carry their cross to the place where they would be crucified. If you saw a person caring a cross, you knew two things, one they were guilty of the crime they were condemned for, and second they were on a one-way journey! That person would not be coming back!
The cross is the place where you died to sin and live to God! And Jesus said it is to be an everyday experience. V:23-“take up his cross daily…
We must die to ourselves every day! Being a Christian does not mean going to church on Sunday, serving in a ministry, going to Bible Fellowship and then living for yourself the rest of the week. It means laying ourselves on the cross dying to self, to live for Jesus every day.
To carry your cross means to bear the approach of Jesus, to admit publicly that you’re guilty of the crime of being committed to Jesus. Caring your cross is dying to yourself and what you want and putting Jesus first.
The third requirement of discipleship:
c. Follow your Lord.
V:23-“and follow me…
This term means, to fallen behind someone and go in the same direction. We are to follow in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus. We follow the example of the Lord Jesus, and the word of God. To follow Jesus means to obey his teaching, his word.
The tense of this verb means to continually follow Jesus. We don’t follow Jesus for 30 days, 60 days, or 90 days; we follow Jesus all the days of our life, all the way to death. Are you following Jesus all the way?
Second discovery we make about discipleship is:
2. The Reasons for Discipleship.
V:24-25.
The little word “For” could be translated because.
Why should we deny our self and take up our cross and follow Jesus? Jesus gives us two reasons we should deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him. Reason #1:
a. That you don’t waste your life.
V:24-Read.
What does it mean to save your life, what does it mean to lose your life? Jesus said if you save your life you will lose it: but if you lose your life for his sake, you’ll save it.
To save your life means that you live for yourself; and that you have determined to protect yourself from hardship and sacrifice. Self-preservation is your goal in life. A person who lives this way, is only concerned about their satisfaction and security. They work so hard they have no time for anything else, even the people they claim to care about. They organize their time around their entertainments, and their hobbies and pleasures. They want to get out of life what they want to get out of life, so they keep their lives to themselves.
They do not make any sacrifices of their time, talents or money for the sake of Jesus; they save their life, keep their lives for themselves. They call themselves Christians, but they are unwilling to sacrifice anything for the cause of Christ.
· They would never tell anyone about Jesus, because they might lose-face, or be ridiculed. And they are going to save themselves from that.
· They would never go anywhere difficult or dangerous with the gospel. They’re going to save their life.
· They would never give their finances sacrificially to the work of God, they’re going to save themselves from that.
Jesus said, if you save your life for yourself, and live your life committed to self-preservation; tragically you will end up losing your life!
The word “lose” means a total forfeit of your life; like a ship that is lost at sea with everything and everybody on board. What you will lose in seeking to save your life; is to lose your life, to totally forfeit your life.
Thank God for the “but” in V:24-“but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it”.
If you will give your life to the Lord Jesus; make living, serving, obeying, giving to him a priority; then and only then will you find real purpose of life.
God has not given us our lives to keep for ourselves, but to give away for him!
Jesus says if you will deny yourself, take up the cross of discipleship and follow him, you will end up saving your life!
When you were a kid, and found something, did you say; finders keepers, losers weepers? When it comes to following Jesus just the opposite is true.
Jesus says in the end, keepers weepers, and losers keepers. For many people, Christianity exists to enhance their lives, their marriages, their bank accounts, and their prestige. But to bear a cross, to pay a price for standing for Christ—no thanks.
But to give your life to Jesus is to save it now and forever.
Jim Elliott famous martyred missionary killed by the Auca Indians said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose”
Thankfully there is more than one way to lose our lives.
We lose our life by giving ourselves completely to Jesus.
We lose our lives by living for others, not for ourselves.
We lose our lives by showing kindness to strangers, and compassion to people in distress.
We lose our lives by giving the gospel to people, even if they reject us.
We lose our lives by giving sacrificially to support the work of God, locally and internationally.
It is as we give our lives away for Jesus sake that we end up saving them!
The reason you should be a disciple of Jesus, number one is so you don’t waste your life.
Reason # 2 for being a disciple is:
b. That you Truly Value your Soul.
V:25-Read.
Jesus says, that if a person could gain the whole world; and everything in it, what good would it be if they lost their eternal soul? If you focus on gaining the whole world, giving your soul and your life to this world; you will lose your eternal soul. What a terrible deal!
Temporary fame, riches, power, and pleasure for eternal separation from God; it is not worth it!
To have a short life of riches, for an eternity in hell; think about it. That is not smart!
To that person who is considering not giving their life to Jesus; thank about your eternal destiny.
Do not trade temporary pleasure, for eternal damnation!
What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?
Your eternal soul is more valuable than the entire world! Choose Jesus Christ and the salvation of your soul, over all of the riches of this world! The things of this world are temporary; your soul is eternal.
180 years after the death of Charlemagne, officials opened his tomb, where in addition to incredible treasures they saw an amazing sight; the skeletal remains of King Charlemagne seated on an ivory throne, his crown still on his skull, a copy of the Gospels lying in his lap with his bony finger resting on the text, “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his own soul?”
There’s nothing in this world of equal or greater value than your soul; the only safe place to put something that valuable is in the nail scarred hands of Jesus!
The third discovery we make about discipleship is:
3. The Rewards of Discipleship.
V:26-27.
The first reward of discipleship is making your life count for time and eternity. Another reward for discipleship is the approval of the Lord Jesus.
Jesus says the person who is ashamed of him, will find themselves at the final judgment being rejected. But the reverse is true; the person who unashamedly owns Jesus, lives for Jesus, shares Jesus will find themselves being received by Jesus, God and the angels. The person who is ashamed of Jesus, rejects Jesus will suffer eternal shame and loss.
V:26-“For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his father’s, and of the holy Angels”.
Being a follower of Jesus involves making a public confession of Jesus, and accepting the teaching of the word of God. This doesn’t mean that you don’t have weak times in your life where you’re ashamed to speak up and speak out for Jesus and his word.
Peter initially failed at this, but he eventually turned it around and openly acknowledged Jesus in the Book of Acts, showing that his earlier denial was a denial of nerve and not of heart.
Followers of Jesus must not be ashamed of Him or His word!
Jesus early disciples were ashamed of him, rather than denying themselves, they denied Jesus; and rather than taking up their crosses, they left Jesus to take his cross alone. And rather than proclaiming Jesus and his word, they gathered in secret afraid and ashamed.
But when Jesus rose from the dead, he gave them courage and the power of the Holy Spirit to enable them to give their lives for him and for the gospel.
Today when you’re saved, the Holy Spirit comes to live in you to give you power and courage to live and out loud for the Lord Jesus.
Not only did Jesus die on the cross, raise from the grave, ascend to heaven; V:26, one day Jesus is coming in his glory, and the glory of the father, and the glory of the holy Angels.
Jesus is sitting on the throne in glory; Jesus is the King of glory, Jesus is the judge of glory! And one day every one of us will have to give an account of whether are not we were ashamed of Jesus. Are you ashamed of Jesus? Are you ashamed of the teaching of the word of God on moral issues, ethical issues, spiritual truth, or salvation?
Stephen is a great example of what happens when a person is not ashamed of Jesus, even to death; the Bible says that Jesus stood up and welcomed Stephen into heaven. Jesus stood and shouted Stephen’s name down the halls of heaven!
When you and I get to heaven Jesus will be on the throne and we will stand before him.
And for those of us who are not ashamed of Jesus; when we get to heaven; Jesus will not be ashamed of us either! When you step through the gates of glory; you’ll be so glad you were not ashamed of the Lord Jesus! Jesus told his disciples in V:27, that some of them would not die before they saw the kingdom of God. Jesus would reward these followers, disciples by giving them a glimpse of the coming kingdom of God.
Obviously Jesus did not mean that they would be alive at the second coming when he sets up his kingdom in all its glory. But three of these disciples would see the glory of Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, all of these disciples would see the resurrected Christ, and see him ascend back to heaven. They would be there on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out and the church was started. These disciples got to experience the beginning of the kingdom of God, the reign of Christ in this world through his church. And these 12 disciples, will sit on 12 thrones in heaven. If you will follow Jesus Christ as a disciple; you will enjoy the rewards of heaven and the kingdom of God.
Jesus is coming again; live your life as if He were coming today!
Are you a follower of Jesus? If not would you make the first step to become his follower? Step out of that pew walk down this aisle and accepting Jesus Christ as your personal savior?
Do not waste your life, do not be ashamed of Jesus, and do not lose your soul. Deny yourself, take up the cross of discipleship and follow Jesus!