You Cannot Be Christ's Disciple Unless...

When Jesus walked the earth and had disciples following Him around everywhere, there were some who truly believed in Him as their Savior, but many did not. Lots of people followed Him simply because they were hungry and He could feed them, or they were sick and He could heal them. Many people were just looking for a thrill and they wanted to see something miraculous happen. They were not interested in Him, or what He was teaching, they were only thinking of themselves. When He would say something hard, many would walk away from Him because they did not want to hear it. Today we also have many people who call themselves Christians but they do not want to hear Christ's hard teachings.

In Luke 14, Jesus described people who cannot be His disciples. We should all make it our first priority to check ourselves against scripture to ensure that we're actually born again and not just deceived. When a person is born again, their desires change, and their priorities change, their lives change. Christians grow closer to Christ as time goes on. Christians love Christ more than anything else, more than anyone else, even more than our own lives. Being a true disciple means you follow Him even if you have to leave everything and everyone else behind. True disciples listen to the hard teachings, and instead of walking away, we draw closer to Him.

"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. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions. Therefore, salt is good; but if even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned? It is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear." (Luke 14:26-34)

Your Family - If you're not willing to forsake everyone else for Jesus, you're not a Christian.

Your Life - If you're not willing to suffer and die for Him, you're not a Christian.

Your Possessions - If you're not willing to part with your possessions, you're not a Christian.

"You cannot be My disciple"

People who call themselves Christian and don't meet these standards, are not actually Christians. They're only fooling themselves with a false religion. Jesus is saying you cannot be His disciple unless you exhibit certain traits. If you don't have those traits, you are not saved. If you are calling yourself a Christian but find that Jesus is talking about you in this passage, it's time for some serious self-examination. Have you actually been born again?

"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John 3:3)

Many so-called Christians prefer to avoid the words of Christ because it makes them feel uncomfortable. But if you're able to ignore the words of Christ and disregard the conviction of the Holy Spirit, and continue to live like an unbeliever, then you're proving that you're not His disciple. Christians don't run away from Christ, we run toward Him. The Spirit guides us to all truth, always to Christ, never away from Him. Scripture exists so that we can be corrected by it. God gave us His word because He loves His children. "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

Your Family

"If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters..."

Why is Jesus telling us to hate our family? In the simplest terms, He's saying if you love them more than you love Him, you're not His disciple. If you're not willing to reject your closest loved ones for Christ, should that become necessary, you are not a Christian. This does not mean as soon as you become a Christian you're supposed to have an emotional hatred for your family. His disciples will always choose Him, even if it means making your entire family into your enemy. But a Christian gives Christ the priority over everyone else, no matter who they are.

"Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household. 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. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it." (Matthew 10:34-38)

When someone is born again, it produces tension with the people in their lives. You want to share the gospel with everyone so that your loved ones can also experience this amazing thing that happened to you. But most people do not want to hear it. So you're compelled to preach, and they're compelled to resist, which causes friction between you. This can become so serious that families will fracture over it. If you love your family too much to allow that to happen, and you take their side instead of Christ's, and if you can surrender the truth and compromise the faith because you'd rather just get along with everyone, you were not truly converted in the first place. (1 John 2:19)

Your Life

"Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple"

The cross was a symbol of torture and death. Crucifixion was slow and painful, sometimes taking several days for the victim to finally die. The image of someone carrying a cross, is the image of someone who is carrying the instrument of his own suffering. As you see in the gospels, part of the humiliation and torture was to make the victim carry his cross out to the place of his execution, if they were even able to walk after the whipping. Many victims of those beatings would have their ribs broken or their spine exposed, because the whip was designed to tear the flesh and rip it open.

The Christian life has much suffering. Our friends and family might not want anything to do with us now, because we make them uncomfortable. Some of us have no one that we can turn to for support and we suffer, carrying our cross and walking toward our destiny. We suffer as we struggle against our sinful flesh. We suffer while we're pleading with our loved ones to snap out of it and come to Christ. We suffer because we're living in an evil world, run by evil men, and surrounded by people who are dead in their sins and don't even know it. We suffer because we're aliens and we want to go home. We suffer when we're persecuted and mocked for our faith. Christians suffer, but we are supposed to embrace our suffering in Christ, not avoid it. In fact it's an honor to suffer in the name of Christ. We are supposed to take up our cross on a daily basis and walk with it as we live our Christian lives. If you are not willing to walk the walk of suffering and death in order to live forever, you cannot be His disciple. If you are not willing to suffer and die for Him, you cannot be His disciple. If you are not willing to live for Him, you cannot be His disciple.

"Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?" (Matthew 16:24-26)

In Luke 14, after Jesus says that you can't be His disciple if you don't carry your cross and follow Him, He includes an analogy to describe the foolishness of a person who doesn't count the cost of discipleship.

"For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace."

What kind of fool calls himself a Christian and merely goes part of the way to Christ, only to turn around and go back when things get too hard? It would be better for you to have not known anything about Him. You're like a dog returning to its own vomit.

"For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them. It has happened to them according to the true proverb, “A dog returns to its own vomit,” and, “A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.” (2 Peter 2:21-22)

"But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:62)

Your Possessions

"So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions."

If you love your possessions so much that you choose them over Christ, you cannot be His disciple. If you are rich, and become a Christian, and yet you cannot find it within yourself to give your wealth away, you're not really converted. Christians are known for their love and generosity. We have the Spirit of love, grace, mercy, and generosity, living inside of us. How can He be in you and not change you? The first generation of believers lived in communes where they shared everything. No one considered anything to belong to himself. They would sell everything they owned and give it to the community of believers to share. Rich people and poor people became equals in Christ.

"Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." (Matthew 19:23-24).

So a true disciple is willing to hate His family for Christ, willing to suffer and die for Christ, and willing to give up everything he owns for Christ. A false disciple is not willing to do those things. Luke 14 describes people who do not love Christ above all else. It's really that simple. If you don't love Him more than your spouse, your kids, your parents, to the degree that you're willing to remove them from your life so that He can have first priority, then you are not His disciple. If you make Christ take second place to anyone else, or to your job, your house, your car, your money, you cannot be His disciple. If you don't love Him more than you love yourself, and even your own life, you cannot be His disciple. If you're not willing to suffer and die for Him, you cannot be His disciple. "He who has ears to hear, let him hear".

Don't be fooled about this. Many people think they're Christians but they're going to hell. It doesn't matter if you live to be 100 and call yourself a Christian your whole life. If you are not a real disciple, you are not a Christian. You're just an unsaved fool.

"And someone said to Him, “Lord, are there just a few who are being saved?” And He said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. Once the head of the house gets up and shuts the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock on the door, saying, ‘Lord, open up to us!’ then He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know where you are from.’ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets’; and He will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you are from; depart from Me, all you evildoers.’ In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves being thrown out." (Luke 13:23-28)

"'Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’" (Matthew 7:21-23)

"Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?" (Luke 6:46)

"If you love Me, you will keep My commandments." (John 14:15)

"Prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves." (James 1:22)

"He who has ears to hear, let him hear" (Matthew 11:15, Matthew 13:9, Matthew 11:43, Mark 4:9, Luke 8:8, Luke 14:35, Isaiah 6:10)

Thanks for reading. God bless.