Luke 14:25-35 - The Cost of Discipleship

Luke  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  32:48
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Introduction:
Many of us have grown up in churches that didn’t preach the complete Gospel. I’m not saying we all grew up hearing apostacy. Some here likely had very strong Bible teaching and Bible preaching pastors. However, during the past few decades we have seen a time of great decline in a true preaching of the Gospel. No, I don’t mean that true churches have not been teaching Jesus dying on the cross, His sinless perfection, His being truly God and truly man, His resurrection, or even His ascension into heaven. Bible-believing churches have maintained a hard line on these truths.
Instead, I am pressing in on a lack of teaching regarding the cost of discipleship.
In an effort to make salvation more palatable - in an effort to remove any possible obstacle hindering one from making a decision to follow Jesus - an incomplete - thereby false Gospel has arisen.
The modern understanding of salvation and evangelism has degraded into the following:
Just pray a prayer and you will be saved. Just ask Jesus into your heart and you will be saved. Just believe and be saved. Just believe in Jesus and your life will be easy and happy. Just accept Christ and you will be saved.
Many of these statements are well-meaning - but they don’t represent a full representation of the Gospel. They do not encompass the most important aspect of salvation - which is repentance.
How many people have prayed the sinner’s prayer (which is actually nowhere in the Bible) and now are living lives in rebellion to God?
How many people asked Jesus into their hearts (also never mentioned in the Bible) and now are living their lives for themselves?
How many people have believed in Christ expecting an easy and happy life only to be disappointed when things started to become even harder at times?
How many people have accepted Christ (which I don’t really know what that means because Jesus doesn’t need you to accept Him… you need accepted by Him instead) only to reject Christ a short time later?
My friends, salvation is a free gift. Salvation requires no work at all. It is by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9). But salvation is much more than a head nod toward God. It is much more than a weak belief in a higher power.
Salvation is a big deal. Salvation requires require another death to occur. Salvation requires your own death. One must die to one’s self in order to be saved. One must completely submit to the Lordship of Christ in order to be saved.
This understanding of the cost of discipleship is rarely, if ever, preached in the modern church. And the result of such weak and incomplete-Gospel preaching has been tragic.
Countless people have become false converts. They have accepted cheap grace as Bonhoeffer so strongly asserted. They have accepted a salvation that requires no death to self. They have accepted a salvation that requires no change in their life. And in essence, they have accepted a salvation that never even existed.
People are not walking or falling away from Christ - they were never with Him to begin with…
Let’s jump into the Scripture and see what Jesus has to say about the cost of discipleship…
Read Full Scripture:
Luke 14:25–35 ESV
Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “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. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 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. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. “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.”
Prayer
Today we will see three things disciples of Christ must understand before they choose to follow Him. The first is…

I. To Be a Disciple of Christ, You Must Understand the Price (25-27,33)

Luke 14:25 ESV
Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them,
Jesus has continued His ministry in Perea, and we are told that great crowds accompany Him. Seeing this great crowd, Jesus gets to work on teaching some hard things…
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.
Anytime great crowds accompany Jesus, it seems like He says something offensive. Jesus wasn't about having a watered down mega church. He wasn't about being seeker sensitive. He knew that no one sought after God (Romans 3). He knew that no one could come to God unless one was drawn by the Father as we see in John 6:44. And so, when people started to follow, He wanted to remind them of the cost of following Him.
Jesus is going to lay out three things that must take the back seat in our lives if we are going to be a disciple of Christ:
Family (26)
Self (26b-27)
Things (33)
Let’s start by discussing the first thing that must take the back seat in our lives to Christ.
Listen to Jesus's words here. He says that if you do not hate your own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters - you cannot be His disciple.
I probably just lost a few of you there. Some of you are really confused. You recall Scriptures like Mark 7:9-13 where we see we are to honor our father and mother. Or Ephesians 5:25:
Ephesians 5:25 ESV
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
Of course Jesus doesn’t want me to hate my wife, right?
What about the rest of our family and even friends?
John 13:34–35 ESV
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Jesus has said that we are known as His disciples by how we love one another. Of course Jesus cannot mean we are actually to hate our family, right?
And even moreso - Jesus asserts that we should love even our enemies as we saw earlier in our study through Luke in Luke 6:27!
Clearly we know that Jesus is not telling us to literally hate our family or others. Jesus is using hyperbole here.
The word hate here actually means ‘to love less.’
This concept of loving less is seen in many places in the Bible.
Consider Genesis 29:31 for example, where we see that Leah was less loved by Jacob - the Hebrew literally meaning hated. Jacob did not actually hate Leah. He just loved Rachel much more.
In other words, your love for Christ should be so strong that your love for everything else pales in comparison. He must be your first allegiance. Even above your family.
As I thought about how to apply this, I couldn’t help but consider the missionary family that we had at our church this past week.
Some might say that they have taken their children into enemy territory. They must not love their children the way that they should. They should stay in the US and remain comfortable. They should be sure to protect and shield their children from Islamic ideals. I’m sure a list of ‘what ifs’ could be endless.
Although these comments may seem well-meaning at first glance, they also show where most people’s allegiances are found - namely selfishly motivated and set upon themselves or even other people and then lastly upon Christ. Sadly even many believers make comments like these.
Brothers and sisters - our first love must be Christ. The best thing that these two Christian missionary parents can do is to obey and love Jesus Christ. This example of selfless, sacrificial service to Christ is the best example they can provide for their dear children.
Christ’s command to love Him above others is actually a call to love others even better. Loving Christ and following Him allows you to agape (or sacrificially love) others. Although your love for Christ must always far surpass your love for anyone or anything else - your love for others will grow because of your love for Christ. We can only truly love because He has loved us first (1 John 4:19).
The second thing that must take backseat in our lives is our self!
Christ states that we must hate our self in order to be His disciple.
For the sake of clarity, some may struggle with depression or self-harm or self-hate. This is not what Jesus is saying. Like we discussed a couple of weeks ago - Jesus expects His followers to be selfless - meaning thinking of themselves less and thinking of Christ more. Self-harming behaviors are not selfless - they are inherently selfish and self-focused. Those who battle such things should seek godly counsel and get the help that they need.
Instead, Christ wants us to understand the great cost of following Him. We must be willing to die to our selfish motivations and self focus and live for Christ.
Following Christ does have a great cost.
Although the gift of salvation is free - although no work must be done in order to accept this free gift - Christ requires complete allegiance to Him alone. You come to Christ just as you are, but He promises to not leave you the way that you are. He will change you and sanctify you and turn you more into His likeness.
As I've stated many times, Jesus does not ride shotgun. He is either driving the car, or He is not present at all. He leaves no room for halfhearted followers.
Jesus then gives a very difficult illustration of what it means to follow Him and deny one’s self in verse 27.
Luke 14:27 ESV
Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
We see the cross as a beautiful picture of the Gospel. And we are right to do so. We have a cross up in our sanctuary here. The cross reminds us of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The cross reminds us of our freedom from sin. The cross reminds us that the punishment has been paid for our sins.
However, those listening to Jesus speak at this time did not have such a view of the cross. They saw the cross as a punishment for evil doers. They saw the cross as a torture device. They saw the cross as something to avoid at all extremes.
And Jesus calls and requires them to bear their own cross and come after Him. And He requires us to do the same.
What does it mean to carry your own cross? For some it may literally mean dying as a martyr. For most others, it means being willing to be subject to persecution, shame, and suffering on behalf of Christ. Again, it means death to self and living for Christ alone.
So far Jesus has told us to put others as well as ourselves in the back seat… and lastly - jumping ahead a few verses - He tells us to put our things in the back seat in verse 33:
Luke 14:33 ESV
So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
This last one hits some people pretty hard. In America we have a lot of things. People love stuff. Just watch ads, and you will see that Americans like their stuff a lot!
Jesus says that a disciple must be ready to renounce all that he has for Christ. A disciple of Christ acknowledges that everything he has is from Christ. And so he holds it loosely and is willing to use his resources however Jesus directs him.
What a difficult set of requirements asserted by Jesus here. Love Jesus more than everyone else - To the point that it looks like you hate others because you love Jesus so much. Then take up your torture device and follow Him. And finally, be willing to part with anything or possibly everything that you have for Jesus.
This seems impossible. And with man it is impossible. But with God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26). When God saves a person, He indwells him with His Holy Spirit. And through the power of the Holy Spirit, one can follow Christ with all of one's heart.
Jesus has told us that we must understand the cost of discipleship - we must understand the price of following Jesus. When we share the Gospel, we need to be sure others understand this cost as well.
We should ask that people to consider following Christ more than they would with buying a car. I think a lot of people consider purchasing a vehicle with more depth than whether they follow Christ or not.
We are not to make a loosely-minded and emotional decision to follow Christ. These emotive responses from people often form more false converts than true converts. It is true that coming to grips with one’s sinfulness, considering the suffering of Christ on the cross, seeing the kindness of Christ offering His life for a wretch like us, and considering the blessing of eternity with Jesus instead of eternity in hell should render one’s emotions moved. However, we should understand that these emotions should come only after a time of intellectually understanding, spiritually discerning, intensely praying, and thoroughly counting the cost.
Next Jesus asserts…
Scripture References: Ephesians 2:8-9, Romans 3, John 6:44, Mark 7:9-13, Ephesians 5:25, John 13:34-35, Luke 6:27, 1 John 4:19, Matthew 19:26

II. To Be a Disciple of Christ, You Must Be Prepared (28-33)

Luke 14:28–30 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.’
Those who choose to follow Christ must understand the price of following Him. And they must be prepared for what is to come. In counting the cost, they must know what living the Christian life will take.
He gives a couple of examples to illustrate counting the cost and being prepared to follow Him as a disciple.
The first is an example of building a tower. Commentators are divided on what kind of tower this might be. It could be a watchtower located in a vineyard, a farm building, or another type of tower. Whatever the tower was for, it was important that this man was prepared for the task at hand.
If anyone has ever worked on building something, they know that having an inventory is very important before starting to labor.
There are many things that one must inventory. You must know what tools that you need. You must know the materials that are needed. And, probably most importantly, you must know the cost of the venture.
It would be very foolish to start building something and then find out that you did not have enough to finish it.
One such illustration of a tower that was left unfinished was the Sathorn (Sah-torn) Unique Tower in Bangkok, Thailand. It was planned as a high-rise condominium complex with 47 stories and was to have some 600 apartment complexes. Building on this massive project was started in 1990 but was halted during the 1997 Asian financial crisis. It was 80% complete when building was halted.
Now the interior looks like this...
Such a sad state of what could have been a beautiful building. However, the builders did not prepare properly. The cost had not been fully counted.
Jesus has another example for us as well. This one is similar but has a little more intensity…
Luke 14:31–32 ESV
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.
In another count the cost parable, Jesus gives a parable with a time crunch. Whereas the first parable offered somewhat of a slower timeline - you can choose to start building a tower or you can choose to postpone the building of the tower - this parable is on a time crunch. There is definitely a choice that must be made, and it must be made quickly. There is a war coming. You are outnumbered two-to-one. Yet, there is a little time to consider what kind of game plan is best.
Is your army able able to handle this larger army? If so, then go to battle. If not, seek peace while there is still time.
Both of these parables reflect on the importance of counting the cost and being prepared. Both of them encourage one not to make a rash decision. The late theologian A.M. Hunter gives a great understanding of these two parables:
In the first parable Jesus says, “Sit down and reckon whether you can afford to follow me.” In the second he says, “Sit down and reckon whether you can afford to refuse my demands.” ’ Both ways of looking at it are important.
A.M.Hunter
Sadly, I have seen many people not count the cost before making a decision to follow Christ. These are the people that some denominations would errantly say have lost their salvation. According to Scripture however, we know that they were never truly saved.
As 1 John 2:19:
1 John 2:19 ESV
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.
Some of these false converts have been victims of false teaching. They have not been told the cost of following Jesus. They have only been told part of the truth. Yes, Jesus does love the world as John 3:16 tells us. Yes, the gift of salvation is a free gift and not because of works (Ephesians 2:8-9). However, following Christ requires you to die to yourself and to your own desires. Jesus requires complete allegiance to Him. He must be the Lord over your entire life.
As we have said a few times…
Repentance involves two things:
Repentance means changing your mind. It is a change of direction. It is both a state of mind and a state of action. It is not only being sorry for your sins, but it is turning from your sins and turning toward Christ.
In turning from your sins, one must die to one’s own desires and live to Christ’s desires. One must be given a new heart and be born again.
Unfortunately, so many like the idea of heaven, but don't like the idea of submitting to the lordship of Christ. You can't have one without the other. Make sure that you have understood the price and that you are prepared before following Christ. And finally…
Scripture References: 1 John 2:19, John 3:16, Ephesians 2:8-9

III. To Be a Disciple of Christ, You Must Persevere (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.”
It is interesting that Jesus brings up salt right after these two parables. Salt is good in many ways. It is a preservative, antibacterial, and as Jesus states here, it makes food taste better.
But what if the salt has lost his taste. What if the salt has lost it's saltiness?
Many people have struggled with the understanding of salt losing its saltiness. Sodium chloride is actually a very stable compound which is why it is such a good preservative. Yet, it can lose its usefulness due to impurities.
Jesus says that this tasteless salt is good for nothing. It is impure.
He says that impure and tasteless salt is useless in two ways.
1. It Is Useless for the Soil
Agriculturalists understand that an abundance of salt will cause vegetation to die. However a small amount of salt actually helps vegetation grow by helping the plants utilize nutrients more efficiently. Having a little salt in the soil will enhance the growth of and development of plants (1).
2. It Is Useless for the Manure Pile
I know that the kids listening to this might be chuckling a little. I’ve definitely got their attention at this point in the sermon! The Bible definitely talks about many things. Even manure as we see here!
There is some discussion in commentaries regarding what Jesus means by this statement. Salt was possibly added to manure piles to slow bacterial fermentation of the manure and to aid with its agricultural use. Some scholars also think that Jesus brought up manure because it is a collection of decomposing waste that still has some value in farming - yet impure salt isn’t useful for even the most menial of tasks such as dung.
Jesus then gives the result of such impure and useless salt - it is to be thrown away. This is a more difficult teaching than what many see when they read over this section. Jesus, in essence, is saying that those who are not sold out followers of His - those who have not counted the cost - those who have not persevered - that they are bound for hell.
And He ends with he who has ears to hear, let him hear - which is a warning to those listening to heed His word.
This understanding of the perseverance of believers is seen throughout the Scriptures. We saw it earlier in 1 John 2:19. We also saw it earlier in our study in Luke 9:62:
Luke 9:62 ESV
Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Jesus requires an all in approach. He requires complete submission to His Lordship.
Scripture References: 1 John 2:19, Luke 9:53
Conclusion:
My friends, as we prepare to close today, I pray that you have taken the words of Christ seriously. Be sure that you have truly counted the cost by understanding the price, being prepared, and by persevering. We have one life and that life is short brothers and sisters. We are not guaranteed tomorrow. Be sure that you are truly in the faith. Be sure that you have fully submitted to His Lordship. If you find that you have believed in cheap grace - namely you have taken an approach to Christ that requires nothing from you - may today be the day of salvation for you. Repent and turn to Christ in faith.
And for those of us who are saved - may we share the complete and true Gospel. May we share the truth of the free gift of God through Jesus Christ. But may we also share the truth of repentance - that it costs one his life. But what is gained is so much better. Not because it makes our lives rainbows and butterflies. But instead - because we are adopted as a son or daughter of the King of Kings - we are given eternal life - and we are given the privilege to worship and serve Him forever.
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