What Jesus Demands from His Followers Luke 14:25-35 Jesus States Three Conditions to Be Able to Be His Disciple. A. Hate Your Ow

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What Jesus Demands from His Followers Luke 14:25-35 Jesus states three conditions to be able to be His disciple. A. Hate your own family and life (v. 26) • “What we most love we find reasonable, desirable, and doable. Whatever we cherish in our hearts most controls the whole person.” (Timothy Keller) • “The hate is the general feeling of alienation in the inmost heart—so that this world’s relationships, as belonging to the state of things in this world, are not the home and rest of the heart.” (Henry Alford) • “The practical meaning is love less, which in experience signifies: hating other objects of affection in so far as they present themselves as hindrances to the supreme love of the Master.” (Robert Nicoll) B. Bear your own cross (v. 27) • Mentioned also in Luke 9:23 • The ultimate act of self-denial and sacrifice. C. Renounce all your own stuff (v. 33) • The verb “renounce” means “say goodbye”; consider Luke 9:61. • “Discipleship requires that God be in first place. The reference to renunciation of all his own possessions refers to all earthly attachments that have first place.” (NET Bible notes) Jesus modeled these priorities: He pursued God’s interests above his family’s (Luke 2:49; John 8:28-29) and was obedient to the point of literal crucifixion (Phil. 2:5-8). Jesus gives two examples of counting the cost. A. Jesus was Himself building and going to battle—building the Church and defeating Satan (Eph. 2:19-22; Col. 2:15). B. Secondarily, these examples admonish his followers to count the cost. Jesus uses salt to warn against uselessness. • Disciples of Jesus who have divided affections are as useless as salt that has no flavor. “You can’t change merely by changing your thinking, or through great acts of will, but rather by changing what you love most. Change happens not only by giving your mind new truths—though it does involve that—but also by feeding the imagination new beauties so you love Jesus supremely. We change when we change what we worship the most. How do we do that? But seeing that Jesus’ own heart was crushed and broken as he died on the Cross for us (Ps. 22:14). It is as we worship a crucified Savior that our hearts are transformed.” (Timothy Keller) .

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