The Cost
Following Jesus • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Think for a moment of the most worthless, unnecessary purchase you have made in recent years. Perhaps it was an electric shaver that now sits in the garage or an article of clothing that will never be worn. It is important to realize that this item was not purchased with your money; it was bought with your time, which you traded for money. In effect, you swapped a certain portion of your allotted days on earth for that piece of junk that now clutters your home.
Have you ever sat back and counted the cost of something? Have you ever had a friend or a spouse that asked “Are you sure you need that?”
It seems annoying at first, but when you realize they were right, you are thankful for their advice. You may still hold some resentment, but you are thankful. Counting the cost is never fun when it involves something personal.
Following Christ cost something. Modern churches, especially those in the western world, prefer a church that doesn’t cost you anything. That is why prosperity preachers are so successful in today's society.
Believe it or not, Christ had to address this even during his ministry. Let’s look at our text for today
Now great crowds were traveling with him. So he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, wife and children, 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.
Let’s start by looking at the first verse before we even get to the points in the message today.
Now great crowds were traveling with him. So he turned and said to them,
A great crowd a church does not make!
To set up what is going on here, Jesus just left the Pharisees house, had feed the hungry, preformed an exorcism. Jesus turned around and what he saw was a crowd not interested in the spiritual things, they wanted the miracles, they wanted him to throw over the government and establish the Davidic kingdom. They were expecting the wrong things.
So what did Jesus do. He thinned the herd. What we are going to see and study today is what it really means, what it cost, to have personal discipleship with Jesus Christ. Jesus is not interested in quantity, he is interested in quality.
Last Sunday, I challenged the church to reach double in size by this time next year. Meaning we normally run near 40 so that would mean 80 people average per Sunday. I also gave examples on how to do that. I also said that I am not worried so much about filling the church but reaching the souls that those empty seats represent.
Jesus wants his house filled, but he wants it filled with disciples who know the cost of that personal relationship.
We can gather crowds easily. Feed them every Sunday. Maybe have a fog machine and fancy lights. Have Lennie dress like Elvis and the girls in dresses with slits all the way up their thigh. We can gather a crowd.
We are not interested in the crowd, we want church. We want a fellowship of believers that have a mustard seed of faith. It is that church that is moved and swayed by the Holy Spirit. It is that type of church that can change the world around them.
Christ looked and saw the crowd. He knew that they were there for what they could get, not what they could be a part of. So he started by say this...
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, and even his own life—he cannot be my disciple.
Man, that seems so harsh. Right? I was reading this thinking Christ really didn’t say hate right? So I looked up that word hate in the Greek.
And guess what it means
Miseo: (mis-eh-o) verb
to be hated, detested, pursue with hatred
So it does mean that. Now, I have told you that we can not read the bible with western eyes. We must look at the culture and what Christ was really saying.
Christ was not using hate in a carnal sense. Hate is a metaphor here. A hyperbole of such. We know this because of a few things.
One Exodus 20:12
Honor your father and your mother so that you may have a long life in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
And also Ephesians 5:25
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her
So what is Christ really meaning here, well lets see in his own words in the Gospel of Matthew
The one who loves a father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; the one who loves a son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
What Christ was doing was driving the point home that the cost to be my disciple is to have no one and nothing before him. Hate is not an antagonistic point but he is saying you must love everything and everyone less than you love me.
Understanding this makes verses like
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and by craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
What happens in the modern church is that we put things before Jesus Christ. Be it family, be it money, be it hobbies, you could put anything there…Discipleship could call you to leave family or prioritize them that is completely against what the world says. We must count the cost.
There is one more area that we must count the cost and that is when we look toward ourselves.
Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
This is such a necessary cost that Christ repeats it several times.
Then he said to them all, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.
And whoever doesn’t take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.
Calling the crowd along with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.
Why is this repeated so much? The one thing that truly gets in the way of being a disciple of Jesus Christ is the person you see in the mirror everyday.
Now this may seem strange to us, but the crowd would have seen crucifixions. They would have seen beaten criminals having to carry a cross to their own deaths. Carrying the very thing they would die on.
This cross represents our dying to self. Our own self-denial of the flesh and the things of this world.
It also represents suffering. Becoming His disciple will require suffering. Not all Christians suffer the same, but taking up your cross daily means you identify with Christ and His suffering.
2838 We talk about the joys and comforts of salvation; Jesus Christ talks about taking up the cross and following him.
Oswald Chambers (Lecturer and Missionary)
Some practical ways to count the costs include:
Recognizing your spiritual destitution: Have the spirit of utter humility in regard to your own worth, righteousness, goodness, and merit.
Obedience: Trust God and align your life with God's standards.
Self-denial: Do things you don't want to do, like reading your bible when you'd rather socialize on social media, or completing a difficult task at work.
Prayer: Pray daily, even when you're busy or stressed. You can also pray to gain the strength to carry your daily cross.
Accepting your circumstances: Believe that God knows your circumstances and is working for you.
Dying to self: Put God at the center of your life and pray to end selfishness.
Acknowledging your shortcomings: Pray for conviction and allow Jesus to shape your life.
Focusing on the cross: Start your day with a prayer that focuses on the cross, thank God for the work of the cross, and ask the Holy Spirit to keep you focused on the cross throughout the day.
As a disciple of Jesus Christ, we must understand and count the cost. It is knowing He is first and foremost in our lives. That is the hope we have in Christ, that we are willing to deny self to follow Him.
Evil would be defeated, not by military victory, but by a doubly revolutionary method: turning the other cheek, going the second mile, the deeply subversive wisdom of taking up the cross.
N. T. Wright
