Are You Ready To Be A Disciple?

Luke 14:25-35

New Year, New Goals

when we begin a new year we like to set goals, new years resolutions

exercise, eating better, losing weight, reading more, giving up bad habits, bible reading plan

the new year gives us a time built into our lives to re-evaluate our life, our commitments and have a new beginning, a fresh start.

New Years resolutions are sometimes known for not lasting anyone ever had this?

failed to count the cost of the commitment we were making. Bite of more than we can chew

our heart is not in it

it gets really hard and so we give up

in our text this morning Jesus describes for us the high bar of being his disciple and urges us to consider what we are signing up for when we commit to follow him.

Jesus we are told is talking to a large crowd look at verse 25

Luke 14:25 ESV

Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them,

Jesus is not talking just to his disciples but to a large crowd, in this crowd would be people who have already made a decision to follow Jesus, others who might be considering it.

Look at what Jesus says to this crowd, verse 26

Luke 14:26 ESV

“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.

Disciples of Jesus Put Him Before Everyone Else

Jesus begins here with a conditional statement - If anyone comes to me.

Jesus is talking here about those who come to him with the intent to follow him by faith, that is to become a disciple of Jesus.

remember Jesus is talking to a large crowd, he is saying hey if any one of you want to follow me, I mean really follow me listen up

Then Jesus says something disturbing - look back at verse 26

Luke 14:26 (ESV)

“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.

what is Jesus saying here? Does he really intend that we hate our parents, our spouse and children, our siblings and even our life?

Jesus is using a semitic idiom here with the sense being that one’s love for Jesus must be greater than that of one’s love for anyone else, including these close family relationships.

So Jesus is saying that if we want to be his disciple we must have a love and commitment to him that is greater than our love and commitment to any other person.

This fits with God’s demand that his people love him supremely and have no other God or thing taking priority over him, so it is with Jesus, not even our family commitments are to get in the way of our love for and following of Him.

Jesus adds to this our own life. that is as followers of Jesus we are not to value our own life more than our commitment to Jesus. the idea here is that if we value our life more than Christ we would be unwilling to sacrifice any aspect of our life for serving Jesus up to and including our life itself.

thus a disciple according to Jesus even puts Jesus before himself, willing to give his life as a sacrifice to the Lord, either literally as a martyr or more likely as a living sacrifice like Paul talks about in Romans 12

Jesus says we cannot be his disciple if we don’t put him before everyone else including ourselves.

Is your love for and commitment to Christ the primary commitment of your life? if your love for Jesus cost you the love of your family would you persist in your love for Jesus? what if you love for Jesus were to cost you your life? Jesus sets the bar high for those who would come to him to follow him.

Jesus continues describing the high bar for those who would follow him, look at verse 27

Luke 14:27 ESV

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

Disciples of Jesus Surrender Lives to Him

those Jesus is speaking to would be familiar with cross imagery. they had seen condemned men forced to carry their cross beam to their own execution. powerful imagery

this man would be a dead man walking, he was on a one way journey to the cross, there is no turning back.

the picture of a disciple of Jesus bearing their cross carries with it the image of voluntarily giving up one’s life and autonomy to come after Jesus, to follow him.

And just like those observing the soon to be crucified knew that the bearer of the cross had forfeited their life by heir offense whatever it was so those who bear their cross in following Jesus live in such a way that those observing our lives see that we have given up our life for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

this is a demonstration of self-denial, it is a willingness to endure suffering for the sake of Jesus and to follow him no matter the cost.

Jesus says that if we do not do this, if instead we cling to our autonomy and refuse to give up our life for Jesus insisting on living our own way and for our own purposes, we cannot be his disciples.

Are you willing to fully surrender your life to Jesus, as you think about the goals that you are making this new year do they reflect a desire to take up your cross and follow Jesus or are they about you doing what you wan to do?

Jesus then knowing that he has set the bar really high for those who want to follow him, gives us two illustrations, look at verses 28-32

Luke 14:28–32 ESV

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? Otherwise, when he has laid a 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.’ 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? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.

Disciples of Jesus Should Count The Cost

Jesus here uses the illustration of building a tower.

first there is the desire to build a tower, next comes the process of counting the cost of building that tower because it would be foolish to start building a tower and not know if you have enough to finish the tower. if all he could do is lay the foundation others would see him and mock him for it.

illustrate with the proposed church foyer handicap expansion. knock the walls down and not be able to rebuild them.

Jesus also gives the example of battle. any reasonable king before going to war with another king would first evaluate if he had what it would take to win the war. does he have enough soldiers, does he have enough equipment, ammunition, food, etc.

if he decided that he did not hav what it takes he would try to avoid the war in the first place and would try to seek peace. for it would be foolish to go undermanned, and ill prepared for a war that the king would undoubtedly lose.

Jesus point then is that if we desire to be his followers we should sit down and count the cost of what that means. Are we willing to pay the cost of being a disciple of Jesus, are we willing to put out love for and commitment to follow Jesus above every other relationship? Are we willing to surrender our lives and autonomy to Jesus and follow him no matter where he leads us? because this is what Jesus is saying that we are signing up for when we commit to follow Jesus.

Look at the conclusion Jesus makes in verse 33

lk14.33

Luke 14:33 ESV

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

Disciples of Jesus Cannot Be Half-Hearted

Here Jesus for the third time in our text gives a condition for who cannot be his disciples, specifically referencing renouncing all that he has. essentially summing up what has come before.

If we are not willing to give up any and all things, relationships, our lives and our autonomy, then we cannot be Jesus disciples.

Jesus is painting a picture of a disciple and it is not one who is partially commited, it is not one of a half-hearted commitment.

Jesus instead describes someone who is all in, no reservation, no hesitation.

Is there anything that you would not give up for Jesus if he asked you for it? We are to live with open hands before the Lord.

do you remember the song back in the 90’s “I would do anything for Love, but i wont do that” sometimes that is the type of commitment that we want to make to Jesus, but that is not the kind of commitment that he requires. he wants I would do anything for you no matter what.

Jesus ends this passage with another illustration look at verse 34-35

Luke 14:34–35 ESV

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

Jesus uses salt to illustrate the type of disciple he is describing.

Salt is good as long as it does what salt is supposed to do, Salt gives flavor (french fries, popcorn, potatoes), Salt preserves… but if it does not do those things what is it good for? nothing, it is not even good for the manure pile, it is to be thrown away.

Jesus point here is that if follower, a disciple ceases to function like a disciple in the ways described in this passage, they are no longer useful and like the salt are thrown away.

Jesus is not looking for the scraps of our life, he is not looking for whatever we may choose to give him when we think about it, no he describes here that if we are going to follow him, the bar is high and he desires and expects that we think about what he expects before we say we are going to follow him because he wants our full commitment.

Are You Ready To Be A Disciple Like That?