Video Sermons The Gospel of Matthew

The Cost of Following Jesus - Matthew 16:24-28

Sep 15, 2023

Summary of Sermon

In this text, Jesus lays out for us that there is going to be a cost to most of us when it comes to serving the Lord. Most of us in North America and the Western hemisphere have not really had to endure much persecution over the past 100 years. But lately, there has been an open, demonstrably open hatred, towards Christians and Christianity. As such, we may find ourselves in a place where we are about to be persecuted for our faith in Jesus. Jesus of course, never leaves us without proper instruction about what to expect and how we should be, and He leaves us a glimmer of hope as well.

“If’, if a man wants to follow Jesus. This is a choice that you have to make, no one can make you or I follow Jesus. We must want to. Many a Christian family, mine included has had a wayward kid, who defies God even with a good upbringing.

“Deny self’, this is the main key to following Jesus. I must stop putting myself first. God and His ways and plans come first; my comforts are secondary or even better non-existent. I will not deny myself, I cannot then serve God or others, for that matter, wholeheartedly.

‘Take up’, the cross was a painful burden to Jesus, it was a sign of defeat. Many will think that of you, ‘man you serve Jesus?’ You are stupid, crazy, uneducated and on we can go. Some will laugh at you and not want your company or value your opinion. This is why we have to actively take up the cross and that daily.

Jesus will judge us one day. This is a judgment of the saved, not the lost. We will all give an account one day of how we followed Jesus once we were saved.