TOPIC:"The Demanding Christ"
"Any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple"
In this message I want to put the emphasis upon the word “everything” as we find it in our text: “Any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.” Hudson Taylor, the famous missionary to China, once wrote these words to his mother about becoming a missionary: “I feel as if for this I could give up EVERYTHING, every idol, however dear.” John Calvin, the great theologian of past years, in the same spirit declared: “I gave up EVERYTHING for Christ, and what have I found? I have found EVERYTHING in Christ!”
I ask: Have we come to grips with the truth of those two statements? That the Christ who demands everything from us will in return give us everything of Himself. Do we really believe that, and have we acted on that belief, that the demanding Christ who calls us to leave all to follow Him will in return meet our every need no matter what the situation? Here we find the Christian surrendering all of himself to Christ and Christ giving all of Himself to the believer. Now this surrendering of everything to Christ is never an easy thing to do.
But get this amazing fact: The sovereign Lord who lays this responsibility on us to leave everything to follow Him works in us by His Spirit to enable us to discharge this aspect of our discipleship. The Apostle Paul talks about giving up all to follow Christ. After describing in Philippians chapter 3 what he was ready to renounce in order to totally follow Christ - his religious ancestry, his prideful orthodoxy, his zealous activity - he writes the following words: "I once thought all these things were so very important, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I may have Christ and become one with Him" (Philippians 3:7, 8, NLT). Now this matter of "discarding everything" in order to follow Christ as stated by Paul is precisely what Jesus is talking about here in verse 33 of Luke chapter 14.