It’s Important to Consider the Cost of Following Jesus Christ

Luke 14:25-35

Click for a description of the mark of the beast.

• Carrying the cross is more important than family.
• Count the cost of living for Jesus.
• There is a battle for the soul.
• Jesus preserves the soul and gives eternal life.

Carrying the cross is more important than family. “Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, “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.” Luke 14:25-26 Anytime we are in a crowd of people, it’s safe to assume that most are not followers of Jesus Christ. All the world lives for the mark of the beast, except those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. As hard as it is to give up our “loved ones,” who do not live for Jesus, it is necessary to do. In my experience, just living for the Gospel causes those in my family to become malicious in their behavior towards me, really, they are hostile to the Spirit of Christ. I have a choice of discarding my life in Jesus Christ to appease them, or I can continue to live by the Bible. I continue to follow Jesus and cut ties to the family members. Likewise, I have the choice of being the obnoxious and Christless person that everyone wants me to be, or I say good-bye to my life according to what it could be in this world. I say good-bye to my life in this world to uplift the name of Jesus and embrace the Holy Spirit. Living for Jesus nowadays comes with heartache, pain, and a lot of afflictions in many areas of daily living. Jesus replies to us, “And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.” Luke 14:27

Count the cost of living for Jesus. “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— ” Luke 14:28 Jesus wants us to count the cost of carrying the name of Christian, of being His child. It’s about losing social integration, family, money, possessions, and physical comforts for simply rejecting the society of the mark of the beast and living in the Spirit of Christ. Worldly ways impede us from being built up in God, the Gospel of Christ, and the Holy Spirit. We have to consider the cost, “…lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’?” Luke 14:29-30 In order for our house, our body, to be built as the home of the Holy Spirit, we have to pick up the cross and walk in the Spirit of Christ. Those of us who endure to the finish will inherit eternal life in the New Jerusalem.

There is a battle for the soul. “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?” Luke 14:31 As a Baby Boomer, there were always sermons about the followers of Christ being in a battle, but today it has become very clear that we are. Those who live for the mark of the beast dominate the cities and they make it pretty clear that they despise God’s Holy name, His people, and the Gospel of Christ. There is a war between the king of this world and the King of kings, Jesus Christ. We have to consider that Jesus is the only road to victory, and it is victory over sin and death. “Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace.” Luke 14:32 The worse thing we can do is make peace with the social order of this Christless world. Jesus Christ is coming back, and I can see Him on the horizon, and we need to make peace with Him. That peace is made by carrying the cross and living for Jesus.

Jesus preserves the soul and gives eternal life. “So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.” Luke 14:33 To carry the name of Christian, we have to be willing to live without the prosperity and physical comforts of this world so that we can be built up as the home of the Holy Spirit. There is a battle for the soul, and the thing that has power over physiology wants to make us the seat of government for the mark of the beast. We have to make peace with the victor, who is on the horizon preparing to come back as conqueror over this world. There is no hope in preserving this world, it is a matter of preserving the soul of each individual person in this world. Jesus Christ is the One who preserves our soul, but if we let the Gospel fade from our heart and mind, how are we going to have the zest of the Holy Spirit? Jesus asks us this question, “Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for the land nor for the dunghill, but men throw it out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” Luke 14:34-35 In the same way that people throw out spoiled food that is no longer preserved, each of us will face a day of judgment. If Jesus Christ has rotted away from our day-to-day life, then we will perish into the eternal torment of Hell. If we maintain our heart and mind with the preservative of the Spirit of Christ, then we will be preserved in the eternal city of the New Jerusalem.

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“….to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets,“
‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.’”
“I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.”
Revelation 2:24-25, 3:1