Sermon Tone Analysis

*06~/29~/08 –* *The Continuing Cost of Following Christ*

Luke 14:25 -35

 

 

Opening Statements:

 

Introduction: To open our time let me ask you a few questions:

* Can there be any higher joy than to be made right with the living God?

To have the offense and condemnation of our sins which are many cancelled?

* Can there be any greater privilege than to be named as a child of God, not for any good thing that we have done but purely out of God’s own good pleasure, by his divine choice and for his own praise and glory that we can be named as God’s people.

* Belonging to God and being able to consider him as “Father” is a tremendous blessing because we are so unworthy.

Us, you, me both specifically and collectively are utterly unworthy to be called the children of God.

* We rejoice in his marvelous and amazing grace as he the infinitely holy one would set his love upon us who are so unlovely, so unworthy and yet so precious in his sight – so precious that we were purchased out of the slavery of sin that held us bound and captive and we were purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ, God the Son that we might dwell with God eternally and be to the praise of his glory.

As I was praying over what it is that I would share with you, you who are among the most well taught people in all of Christendom.

We sit week after week under the finest teaching available to the people of God anywhere on this planet.

We have a Senior Pastor who is probably the finest Bible expositor of his time and we have the privilege to be led in this fellowship group by a highly gifted and talent servant in Jonathan Rourke.

The history of this fellowship group has seen several gifted men serve as its pastor.

As I was praying about what to teach I at one point started to consider Ephesians 2:1-10 and praise God that I didn’t because I could have never given it the treatment that Phil has been giving it these past two weeks.

For about two years our Bible Study has been going through Genesis and on the Monday Night Outreach program we have been going through Luke for about  2 ½ years and so it made sense that the message for this morning should come from one of those two books.

So if you have your Bibles turn with me to the Gospel of Luke chapter 14 and we will look at verses 25-35.

No doubt there are some of you who see this as folly to come to a passage that has been taught be the finest Bible expositor of his day but I am trusting in two things: One, that it will be difficult to remember the passage as John taught it since he taught it nearly three years ago and two, that this is the message that God would have me preach and so the words I speak will be used of the Holy Spirit to minister to the hearts of each one here today, so trusting that this is the passage that God has for us today I will work the field already plowed by our pastor.

So to that end, let us pray that God will accomplish his purposes in our hearts.

READ TEXT

Luke 14:25 Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them,

 

26  "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?

29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.'

31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?

32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.

33.

So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

34 “Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?

35 It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile.

It is thrown away.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

This passage is unique to Luke, however they are similar to other passages.

Verses 26-27 are similar to Matthew 10:37-38; and verses 34-35 are similar to Matthew 5:13 and Mark 9:49-50.

In this passage Jesus clearly and upfront calls for those who would be his disciples to make the greatest sacrifices possible.

In this passage Jesus outlines the high cost of being one of his followers.

Here Jesus explains that it costs something to be a Christian.

He is not appealing to the nominal, the casual or the superficial.

To be a Christian takes sacrifice.

It is not enough in our day to come to church, sit in the pew and go about your life never being touched or touching others.

Jesus calls for a costly association and in light of the great cost to be a follower of Jesus, I want to pose a question for our consideration today.

The question is, Who or what is your greatest love?

To whom have you given greatest allegiance?

Who is it that has your greatest devotion?

For whom are you most passionate?

Who or what is it that you are living for?

On who or what is your life centered?

*Who or what is your greatest love?*

I ask this question because I know that it is a question that many, if not all of us, have already addressed and answered in the past, but what I want us to consider today is, *has the answer changed since you first considered the question?*

I know that if I ask the question *who do you love most*, most of us know what the answer should be.

It’s like Jr. High group where you stand a reasonable shot at answering a question correctly is you answer: Jesus, God or the Church.

But I want you to go beyond answering on the basis of what you know the answer should be and I’d like for each of us to answer the question as the answer truly is.

Is the answer the same or has anything happened to cause it to change?

In the passage we are looking at today Jesus calls for three things necessary for those who would be his disciples.

He calls for a Consuming Commitment, for Careful Consideration and for Consistent Character.

And this will be our outline.

A Call for

A Consuming Commitment in verses 26-27

For Careful Consideration in verses 28 – 33                           AND

For Consistent Character in verses 34 - 35

 

Chapter 14 of Luke begins in the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees where Jesus is present for a meal.

While he is there he heals a man and this of course produces an issue.

This narrative of the meal and the ensuing events is followed by a couple of parables which lead to verse 25.

 

Verse 25 begins sometime after that meal and it tells us that *as Jesus was going there was a great multitude with him*.

What they were there for and why they were following we really don’t know, but on the basis of what Jesus says next we have a pretty good idea that not all of them were there out of a deep love and devotion to Jesus.

Not all of them were there to express their devotion to him as the Messiah or to look to him as the one who forgives sin.

Whatever their reasons for following, Jesus begins in verses 26 & 27 to stir the pot, to upset the status quo and to weed out those who are truly disciples from those who are not.

In verses 26-27 Jesus makes:

 

*I.

A Call for Consuming Commitment*

26  "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

A call for Consuming Commitment.

Jesus is calling for definitive and decisive action that is not for the casual follower.

In this statement Jesus expresses that he is not interested in those who would follow him out of some superficial curiosity.

He is not interested in those who are there for the carnival that no doubt follows him where ever he goes.

He’s looking at those who would be true disciples.

Chapter 9 of Luke points out that Jesus had set his face to go to Jerusalem.

Whatever else Jesus would do or that might happen along the way, Jesus’ direction was towards Jerusalem and only one thing awaited him in Jerusalem.

Jesus knows what he is headed to and he calls on this crowd to examine their resolve to follow him.

I think it’s important to note at this point that the primary application of this passage has to do with salvation.

The context of this passage is salvific in nature in that it is a call to come to Christ.

Jesus is not calling committed believers to a higher level of commitment.

This is an initial call to believe and become a true disciple.

The primary application of this passage is salvation.

This is not a gospel presentation in that it is not one of the first texts you should use to explain the doctrine of sin, how man has violated God’s standards and consequently stands condemned and guilty before God.

It is not a passage that you would use to explain who Jesus is, his work on the cross, his resurrection or why men are in need of a savior but it is a text that you should use to show what it means to be a follower of Christ.

It is a text that you could use with those who are proponents of easy believism or cheap grace.

It is a text that you should use to explain that Jesus is not something you add to your life.

Being a follower in Jesus does not mean you have a fond regard for him or that you have some sort of warm fuzzy feelings about him.

This is a passage that you should use to point out that coming to Christ is not something that is a casual undertaking but it is something that requires all that you are.

It is a passage where Jesus makes a very hard statement and it such a statement that makes Christianity difficult for many to accept, but it is an important passage because it contains the words that Jesus himself used to separate the casual superficial follower from the truly committed.

Pascal said “All men seek happiness without exception.

They all aim at this goal however different the means they use to attain it…They will never make the smallest move but with this goal.

This is the motive of all the actions of all men, even those who contemplate suicide.”

If Pascal is correct and I think he is, Jesus is calling for those who will take their supreme joy in him.

He is looking for those who will love him supremely over all other human relationships.

26  "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

Jesus says that if anyone “/does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple/.”