And whoever does not carry his cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple.Whoever doesn’t bear his own cross and come after me, can’t be my disciple.And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.Whosoever doth not bear his own cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.
4 sermons cite this verse
… Yes, even their own life, such a person cannot be my disciple. Verse 27, and whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won't you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone is going to see this and ridicule you, saying this person began to build, but they weren't able to finish it. Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won't he first sit down and consider whether he is able with 10,000 men to oppose the one coming against him with 20,000? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything, you have. You cannot be my disciple. …
And he continues in verse 27. He says, and whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. How's that for a crowd pleaser? I can see the people filing out as he says these words, because if you didn't know the cross was the ancient torture tool, Jesus would eventually die on. And the Roman government would make you carry your cross to your own execution. and so Jesus is literally saying you have to walk the road to your own death in order to follow me and not only that the cross was reserved for the worst of the worst offenders in their society it was a symbol of shame a symbol of pain and a symbol of death and so Jesus is saying are you willing to go to the lengths that I am going to go for you? Jesus can call us to this level of commitment because Jesus actually walked out this level of commitment for you and for me on the cross. …
… yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. Are you getting a glimpse here of what it means to follow Jesus? to be a disciple of Jesus. Anyone who does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. What does that mean? Well, we come back to Matthew 4 and we've got this picture. Think of how all of that was being played out in their lives. Look at the cost. You've got a list of things there in your notes. What Jesus is teaching us here is that as his disciple, we leave behind all things. We leave behind all things. And it takes place in various ways in this little passage in Matthew chapter 4. Think about what these guys were leaving behind. First of all, we leave behind our comfort. All that was familiar to them. …
… Listen to Jesus now. If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Okay, now, put yourself in this place, the crowd hearing this from Jesus. They recognize him. Sure, he's a rabbi, he's a spiritual teacher, he's a miracle worker, and they're very intrigued by him. But then he lays out, to use Bonhoeffer's terms here, the cost of discipleship. anyone comes to me and wants to be my disciple without heeding father and mother wife and children brothers and sisters even his own life he cannot be my disciple now look i know i've heard 100 sermons on this and have read the relevant text that will stress that in jesus aramaic this language of like hate and love was not so much of either or it was a sense of prioritization okay There's truth enough to that. But see, I don't want us to soften this language too much. This is meant to be a kind of shock therapy. …