Luke 14:25-35

Today, Pastor Jack shares with us that Jesus is about to jar the people’s view of the world. Unimpressed with the attendance of the crowd, Jesus is about the quality of the church not the quantity, numbers are not His goal. Instead, He begins to lay a foundation of love and discipleship among the people.

We’re looking at a message entitled how Jesus builds a church.
The way Jesus builds a church is absolutely different than the way we’re hearing about churches being built today.
That’s for sure. Uh You should see the mail that I get both in the office and at home from ministry organizations that if I just write them a check for 2000 bucks, they will come and teach us how to be a church that is growing.
They’ll teach us how to increase our attendance by 10% a year.
They will show us how to keep people listening, how to keep them attentive for the sermon duration.
And they literally say that no sermon should be longer than 20 or 30 minutes.
And church in totality should be about 60 minutes in and out. Make it easy.
In fact, much of the selling on these little cards about why we should write them a check for $2000 so that they will come and build our church is all about numbers.
Beware of a church. That’s all about numbers. Oh, how many people came this week?
Oh, how many people are coming?
How do we get more people in, you might say, well, Pastor Jack, isn’t that the sign of success?
No, not according to Jesus. Beware where that’s the push games.
You know, if you bring in enough people, you might qualify to win the bicycle next month and you laugh.
But those are real things. And so if we just write them a check for $2000 we can have a church built the way that this organization thinks it should be built.
And here’s one of the statements that are made in almost every one of those mail outs, that church needs to be made in such a way that people don’t recognize or realize that they’re in church.
Maybe you see it in advertisements come to this church. It’s like not being a church.
Well, wait a minute, stop right there. Jesus Christ loves the church.
And why would we go about to seek to deceive people and to reinterpret what the definition of the church is?
Could it be that by man’s pursuits we’ve gotten so far away that we’ve ruined what Jesus has intended?
I think that’s it or should we not just do church from the beginning?
The way God prescribes church ought to be done.
Because if you begin to do it, the way God has prescribed it to be done, you don’t have to pump up the people to bring in other people.
You can just minister within the means in which God provides.
Pastor Chuck Smith has always joked around that in Chuck, 11 is where God guides God provides.
But see, we get this thing in our mind about no more numbers, bigger, bigger building, they will come.
Do this? Get more numbers? We’ve got to make this big look and this big push. Why?
Because it causes the senses to be excited. It’s a human thing. It’s wow, look at us now.
But the Bible warns that in the last days there’s going to be a church in the last days, a church universal that has the form of godliness but denies the power thereof.
We need to be very careful about that. So how does Jesus build a church man?
He’s gonna shock us this morning because up until now, church walking with Jesus has been pretty incredibly exciting at this time, Matthew or Luke, excuse me, chapter 14, as they’re heading to Jerusalem.
Now for his last trip, by the way, this trip will cost him his life.
Although it’s prescribed in scripture prophesized in the Bible, Jesus is actually going to his death. He knows that.
But the Bible says his face has been set like flint to get there.
He’s not gonna run from Jerusalem. He’s running towards Jerusalem.
He’s got an appointment on a cross and there’s a great crowd following him as we’ll see in a moment, a great group of people coming in huge crowds and by the human eyes, it would be tremendous.
I bet you. The disciples may have been thinking man, we’re rolling now. Boy, this is going to be tremendous.
Once we get to Jerusalem, I bet the ministry is going to really explode.
The crowds are big, people are being healed. Jesus is raising people from the dead.
If you’re sick or you know somebody who’s sick, go see Jesus, he’ll fix you right up.
Ministry has been fun and free lunches, everything looks right.
Everything that today in modern ministry you would say this is it. We’ve arrived but not according to Jesus.
Look at it with me if you would as we get into our study right now, how Jesus Christ builds a church verses 25 to 27.
Number one point is this by laying a foundation of love.
I need you to write this down because you’re gonna be shocked here in a minute by laying the foundation of love.
How does Jesus build a church? Number one, lay a foundation? Ok. Good, fine.
Made out of what love, not the love that the world says is love.
The world doesn’t even recognize what love is.
And by the way, the world doesn’t even recognize the word love, the way God uses it true love.
And this is what we see this love for Jesus that he’s going to be speaking about prioritizes your life and mind.
Are we Christians today? We say yes, we are.
Then the number one thing that should mark our lives as a priority is love for God first.
Our love for God. Look at verse 26 if excuse me. Oh yeah. OK.
Look at verse 26 we’ll, we’ll check that one out.
But verse 25 will we use as a, as a launch point? Verse 26.
If anyone comes to me and does not, what’s the word? Hate?
His father and mother, wife or Children, brothers or sisters. Yes.
And his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. You can see the crowd moving towards Jerusalem.
And Jesus says that and you can hear this. All the donkeys slammed on the brakes.
This is shocking. It was radical, then it’s radical now.
But notice that he says to them, look at verse 25 verse 25 sets the stage.
It says now a great multitude or multitudes mega group, large scale of people went with him and he turned and said to them, he turns and speaks to the crowd.
He turns and speaks to them who are no doubt thinking success, approval, acceptance, validation.
Any pastor, any evangelist would have died to have this kind of following.
You want the stadium filled, you want the congregation packing out the sanctuary, but it doesn’t mean success in the eyes of God.
It doesn’t mean validation in the eyes of God. All these things we look in the natural mind.
Jesus is not into this.
He said, Jack, are you saying that Jesus doesn’t want a big crowd in heaven. That’s not what I’m saying.
But Jesus knows what’s in the heart of man.
And he knows that in a crowd, things can be very mixed, people can be following in a crowd for a lot of reasons.
The Bible says in Philippians chapter two verses five through seven, that Jesus had this mind and we should have it also.
He who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery or something to be strived for to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation.
Why we would want to ask the question, Jesus, why did you not want to have a reputation among people, Jesus would say because people with, with a reputation, it changes so so quick that the mood, the moment changes, he made himself of no reputation.
He did not have to earn the masses for approval. He had his father’s approval.
If someone followed him or if nobody followed him, he had his father’s approval, make no mistake about it.
So the foundation is love. Number one is this, that love that we have for him is to prioritize our life.
And when he says to them, if anyone comes to me, that’s a conditional statement by the way.
And you need to know that for where we’re going.
If, if you want to, if you’re gonna, anyone comes to me and does not hate you say Jack, that word cannot mean what it means and, and you’re right.
It doesn’t mean hate like you. And I think of the word hate Jesus.
Look, the Bible says, God is love. Jesus said love your enemies. Jesus said love one another, right?
On and on it goes the the Bible says for God so love the world that he gave his only begotten son, right?
So he’s not contradicting himself. So we must study to look at what that word means.
Why is the word used by the King James translators hate, they could not find a word in English that is comparable to the word that is used here in the Greek.
It is so vivid, it is so powerful. Here’s what the word means.
Jesus says, if anyone comes to me and does not love less to such a degree, anything and anyone else in this world in comparison to their great love for me, then they can’t be my disciple.
The word means love last, but that doesn’t even give it justice.
That’s why the translators in English had to put the word hate back in there.
Trusting that maybe you’d go study of the Bible to know what it means.
And here it is, I love it.
Jesus is saying to be my disciple, your love for me must be so grand and so wonderful that those who you love in your life, the love that you love them with compared to the love that you love me with, it looks like hatred said, man, that’s heavy.
I told you it was going to be a heavy message.
You’re listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs.
You know, to hear more episodes and maybe catch up in the series. Just go to Jack Hibbs dot com.
That’s Jack Hibbs dot com. And for now let’s get back to our teaching once again. Here’s Pastor Jack.
Do you love other things more than God G Campbell Morgan writes, I’m afraid that more people hate God and love their husbands and wives and Children in reality within the church.
Who do you live for? You say, well, I live for my family.
That would be a noble thing out of Christianity but not in Christianity. You see, I find that highly offensive.
This, this Bible is terrible what I’m hearing right now. Wait a minute. Cool. Your jets.
Hang on for a second. If you really want to love your Children and your husband and your wife, the way God intended you to then love God first.
That’s what Jesus is teaching. See, love for Him prioritizes everything else in our lives. What is it?
That is your absolute passion? Isn’t your passion for Christ? Greater. The answer must be yes, it is.
The proof is how you live your life. Strong statements he makes. He’s on his way to Jerusalem.
He doesn’t want the crowd uninformed or walking in the sense of a state of delusion.
Jesus turns to this great crowd and thins out the crowd. He does the exact opposite.
We would call this negative church growth tactics. Does he want people in heaven? Absolutely.
But there’s something very interesting going on here right now. You see the word disciple, listen to this.
The word disciple means to walk in the same steps.
Jesus is saying if you want to walk in the same steps that I walk in, you need to love me preeminently.
The word means to live the same life. Disciple means to move the same way.
The word means to mimic or copy. Have you ever seen a little kid?
A little child copy his dad when his dad walks or maybe his dad will blow his nose and the little kid will act like he’s blowing his nose.
Have you ever seen a little girl? This is legendary little girls mimic their mother.
What do they do to mimic mom?
They put her shoes on, they put her dress on, they put whatever she’s got on and you hear those Clickety clack heels down the hallway.
That’s the exact, you know, that child is being a disciple of mom.
That’s what it means to walk in the same steps to walk in the same shoes to have this mimic in your mind.
I’m going to be like her. I’m gonna be like him.
Listen, the word goes on to me in this to be a copy of to do to be reproducing after another.
It’s a relationship that exists between a journeyman and an apprentice.
If you are a journeyman painter, what are you doing?
You are teaching other painters as an apprentice to learn exactly how you do it.
We are to raise up Children in the ways of the Lord that pre assumes and presupposes that we are walking in the ways of the Lord.
And by the way, kids will grow up to be like us, no matter who we are, our kids grow up to be like us.
That’s a scary thing. Huh I notice as I get older, I realize I see more of my dad in my life.
Some of it’s good and some of it’s not so good. We won’t talk about that.
Now we’ll just keep moving on with the message Jesus is saying regarding this word hate.
It means that I’m to occupy a place of absolute priority in your life, total preeminence in your heart and mind.
He said, Jack, I don’t like that.
I understand that that’s why there’ll be less seats or I should say more seats available next Sunday.
After this message, you don’t want to hear this stuff. Nobody wants to hear this stuff.
And as I studied for this message and researched this message over the course of these last three days, looking at all this stuff, the conviction of my own heart because of where we’re going.
Jesus gave an incredible interpretation of two key verses of the old Testament.
The amazing thing to us shouldn’t be a surprise to us. But the amazing thing is regarding priority.
This is what Jesus has to say.
He literally gave a commentary in this teaching based upon Exodus 20 verse three.
And Exodus 20 is the 10 commandments. Verse three is you shall have no other gods before me.
Listen, God says this is it no other gods before me. Number one question, do other gods exist?
Of course, they do. They do.
I thought there was only one God and I thought there was the God of the Bible.
Of course, there’s only one God who’s alive who lives but you and I can make gods any day.
Now, what are you gonna do after service?
You’re gonna go to Nordstrom’s, you gonna go to the car dealership, you’re gonna go buy a house for a dollar 50 the way the price of homes are going, what are you gonna do?
Whatever it is? Are you gonna have a baby today and that little baby? Oh, a baby, a baby.
Listen, that’s fantastic. You gotta have a house, you gotta have a car, you gotta have babies. That’s all great.
But you need to love those things less than you love God.
And when we, when we don’t do that, we get goofy.
We wind up having little idols, little gods in our lives.
We would never say that this is my grandson. He’s my God. And I understand that emotion.
I understand that passion. That’s wonderful. Should, should a grandfather dot Over a granddaughter or grandson? That’s precious. That’s cute.
But listen, the greatest thing grandpa that you can do for that grandchild is to make sure that grandchild knows that God is the ultimate one in all the universe to be loved.
And you tell your grandson growing up, you know what buddy?
There’s no, no greater love in the world that you can direct your love toward than God.
And that child grows up loving God. He’ll love his grandpa.
That child grows up loving God and he’ll love his fellow man.
That grandchild growing up will love his country or his society. He’ll even love those who hate him.
You show that grandchild in loving God first because you know what, you start loving God first and all this natural stuff like, you know, like pus comes out of us, that’s pretty gross.
Now you remember that like we’re a big zit and all this stuff comes out of us and when that junk is out of us, that natural love that we have just humanly speaking, which is this, I love those who love me.
Anybody can love those who love them.
Jesus said anybody can do that but love your enemies that I cannot do. I can’t do.
It’s impossible when all of me gets out, then his love gives me the power and the ability which when it happens, I’m surprised God, I have compassion on that guy.
I can’t stand. What’s that all about Jack? That’s me working in your life.
God, how can you love that guy? Hey, I loved you, didn’t I moving on? Right. It’s amazing.
Do you know what it’s like to be a Christian? You say yes? OK.
Then listen, if what I’m describing to you rings bell rings true to you.
Then listen, you are becoming a disciple. You’ll hear more of this in a moment.
It’s quite shocking. Not only Exodus 20 verse three that you’d never know other gods before me.
Jesus says, but Deuteronomy 65, you shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart, soul and your strength.
That’s what he’s saying.
He gives a New Testament answer to those two Old Testament challenges this love for Him prioritizes our life.
And it’s this, do I love God more than my boyfriend?
More than my girlfriend, more than sex, more than drugs, more than success.
More than the numbers were to love God most, not only priority, but look, secondly, this love for Him drives us.
It’s a propellant. Hey, when you really love God and you want to love God.
Now, look, when I say, when you really love God, those, when you really love God, there’s a very strange emotional contradiction that takes place.
You realize how much you don’t love God. When you really love God.
Because when you say God, I love you, you’re awesome.
It’s the word sounds so hollow that you want them to mean more. My friend.
You’re in a great place if that’s your heart. But this love for him drives us.
Jesus says, whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. Verse 27.
What is, what is he saying? There a cross? Don’t people die on a cross? Yep.
So what are you inviting me to do? Die? Sort of not physically?
What, what good are you to God? If you go blow yourself up? Ok.
That may be big for Allah and His followers, but not for the God of the Bible.
God wants you to live. He says, I’ve given you life. He says, choose life.
He wants you to live but within, within, what about the cross? Forget about the cross.
How about this? He says, take up your electric chair and follow me. Well, that doesn’t help.
It’s a death instrument. That’s my problem. What are you talking about?
Jesus is talking about our self desires, everything that dwells inside of us, that stuff that’s like this.
I want a bigger piece of the pie. I want to be the one that gets all the attention.
I want to be the one up front. I want to have the on and on.
It goes, it never stops with us. He said, Jack, that’s, that’s not me.
Maybe it’s you pastor Jack but it’s not me. It is you.
If we took a group picture right now of all these people, I guarantee you to prove my point.
You would be looking for you. First off, let me see, where am I? I am here, I am.
And then you know, when it’s really heavy that we love ourselves too much is when we say, can we take that one over please?
I had my eyes closed. Have you noticed that? Why do we do that?
Because we love ourselves so much?
Jesus says, listen, you gotta get off the throne and let me be on the throne because to live life correctly and rightly is to have God first.
And so he says, I want you to bury your, your cross and come and notice Jesus didn’t say, hey, I want you to pick up my cross for me.
Will you? Oh no, no. This is a custom cross. Truly, it’s a custom cross.
God says to the Christian, if you’re gonna come and follow me, you gotta pick up your cross.
And I just let you in.
And the key thing about this study that we’ll look at this week and next week, Jesus says to the Christian pick up your cross and follow me.
He’s gonna, and he does invite every Christian to come and be his disciple.
You say, wait a minute isn’t every Christian a disciple? Oh no.
What, why, why, why do you assume that don’t get me wrong if you’re a Christian today?
If you’re trusting that Jesus died on the cross for your sins, that he rose again from the dead.
And you’re trusting in him to get you to heaven.
You’re a Christian, but some Christians spend their whole life just there.
They never move out from that point.
Jesus is saying, hey, you guys, you’re announcing that you’re a believer that you’re a Christian.
Right on now. You want to follow me, you want to go the direction I’m going.
I invite you to come, but count the cost.
There’s a cross involved pastor and bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on real life radio with his message called how Jesus builds a church.
Part one. Thanks for being with us today.
You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack’s series called The Gospel of Luke A series on the book of Luke and the unveiling of Jesus Christ to this world.
And we’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio. Everybody. Pastor Jack here.
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