Luke 14:27-35

********** Start Timer **********

-If you would, go ahead and...

…turn in your Bibles to Luke 14.

We’re going to be picking back up...

…where we left off last week...

…there in Verse 27.

And Remember that we began that study...

....back up in Verse 25...

…but we didn’t make it very far...

…because of what we encountered there in Verse 26.

There, we were faced with…

…one of the great paradoxes of God’s Word…

One that required a thorough going-over.

And, I hope that, what we did...

…was sufficient to resolve...

…the tension that we saw...

Between the commands of Verse 26, and...

The many commands elsewhere to love, honor, and cherish our earthly families

(You can find that on Sermon Audio...

…if you weren’t here...

…and are interested in learning about that resolution)

The good news for today is, that...

…it probably won’t sting as bad...

…at the heart level.

But, that isn’t because the demands of discipleship...

…are being lessened.

In fact, the opposite is true...

Here, they’re being given...

…to the superlative degree.

Meaning, that they can’t be set forth, as...

Any more costly

Any more demanding...

…than what we’re going to see in the verses that follow.

-Well, I hope you’re all there by now.

Let’s read over it together...

…and go to the Lord in prayer.

Luke 14:25–35 (ESV)

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.”

Click Off

Pray

-Well, let’s take just a minute...

…to review what we covered last week.

Back up in Verse 25...

…Luke had introduced this new setting, like this:

Luke 14:25 (ESV)

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

Luke 14:26 (ESV)

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.

Meaning that, like the Levites...

...at the base of Mount Sinai....

…who had chosen the honor and glory of God...

…over even the very lives...

…of their own idolatrous family members...

Like them, we who...

...follow Christ in the New Covenant...

Must be willing to put...

His Will

His Word

His Commands

His Honor

His Glory

…above all other earthly affections and desires...

Including:

Our closest and dearest family membe…

We saw it put this way...

…in another place:

Matthew 10:37 (ESV)

37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

These are all-or-nothing terms.

And back in our text…

…down at the End of Verse 26…

…he added this:

Luke 14:26 (ESV)

26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate . . . even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

—Now, what we have in Verse 27...

…appears to be…

… his doubling down on those terms:

Luke 14:27 (ESV)

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

Now, if it seems like...

…we’ve covered that verse before...

…it’s because, to some degree… we have.

(Or, at least one very similar to it)

It was back in chapter 9.

And it was the first time in Luke’s gospel...

…that Jesus had explicitly invoked the imagery of...

The Roman Cross!

Let’s read that verse again...

…and be reminded of...

…what it would have communicated...

…to Jesus’ First-Century Palestinian audience:

Luke 9:23 (ESV)

23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

Hopefully you can recall this commentary...

We read it when we covered that text:

“When a man from one of their villages took up a cross and went off with a little band of Roman soldiers, he was on a one-way journey.

He’d not be back.

Taking up the cross meant the utmost in self-denial.” It meant the very death of self. — Leon Morris

And the next verse (in Chapter 9)...

…had borne that understanding out:

Luke 9:24 (ESV)

24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

Click Off

You see, the cross/crucifixion was something absolute… The cross/crucifixion was something final.

Once you took up your cross…

…Your life was forever changed.

To take up your cross…

…was to entrench yourself…

…into a very certain future.

It was your final journey.

There was no turning back from it!

That's the connotation...

...that that language carried!

-So, with that in mind...

… let's read verse 27 again:

Luke 14:27 (ESV)

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

The Bible Exposition Commentary says this:

What does it mean to “carry the cross”? It means daily identification with Christ in shame, suffering, and surrender to God’s will.

It means death to self, to our own plans and ambitions, and a willingness to serve Him as He directs (John 12:23–28) — Bible Exposition Commentary

Brethren, this is the calling of the Christian life.

We see it exemplified...

…throughout the New Testament...

…(and in much of church history)

Remember:

Acts 14:19–22 (ESV)

19 But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead.

20 But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered the city, and on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe.

21 When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch,

22 strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.

The Apostles modeled this cross-bearing discipleship

They exhorted others to expect the same

Later on, Paul would tell Timothy:

2 Timothy 3:12 (ESV)

12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,

Click Off

-This brings to mind...

…something that I emphasized last week:

Jesus, was not a salesman!

He didn’t posit misleading pictures of the Christian life...

…in order to bait people in.

He didn’t promise health, wealth, and the love of men...

…to incentivize people coming to him.

He told the absolute truth.

He told them what the costs really were.

And he implored them earnestly, to...

Hear the truth of the Calling of the Christian Life

Carefully consider what they were committing themselves to.

-Look at Verse 28.

He gives two real-life examples...

…to illustrate the kind of...

…careful consideration of the facts...

…that he’s calling them/us to make.

The first is a familiar construction analogy:

Luke 14:28–30 (ESV)

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.’

This would be a foolish man, wouldn’t it?

His naive optimism...

…would end in public shame and humiliation.

No one in their right mind...

…would take on such a task...

…without first very carefully considering the costs, right?

-Second illustration begins in verse 31:

Luke 14:31–32 (ESV)

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.

Again, this is so obvious...

…it doesn’t really need explanation.

The king who didn’t do this...

…would be a reckless fool.

His ignorant and short-sited ambition, would...

Get his men slaughtered

Cost him his kingdom

Probably his own life.

It would be INSANE...

…to be considering something SO important...

…and to make the decision on a whim!

Similarly (but to an infinitely greater degree)...

…Jesus is telling them/us to consider...

…the costs of the Christian life...

…and with a full realization of the facts...

Take up our own crosses...

Follow after him anyway!

-Now, in verse 33, he...

Moves away from the use of metaphors...

States the proposition plainly:

(One commentator said that...

…this was probably one of the most...

…unpopular verses in the entire Bible)

Here’s the summation of the whole section:

Luke 14:33 (ESV)

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

(“renounce” is “give up,” “part with,” “leave behind,” “forsake”)

Guys, if you think about it...

…this has been a persistent theme...

…throughout Luke’s Gospel:

Remember when Jesus called:

Peter, James, and John?

Luke 5:11 (ESV)

11 And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.

Remember when he called Matthew?

Luke 5:27–28 (ESV)

27 After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.”

28 And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.

And remember this in Chapter 9?

Luke 9:59–62 (ESV)

59 To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”

60 And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

61 Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.”

62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Ryken says this:

Luke, Volumes 1 & 2 (Renouncing Everything You Have)

This is what it means to count the cost. Every disciple must relinquish all his possessions—not merely money and material things, but also his dear ones and everything that his heart clings to, yea, even his own life, his own desires, plans, ideals and interests.

This does not mean that he must sell all his possessions or give away all his money or desert his dear ones and become a hermit or beggar or wanderer,

but it means that he must give Christ full control over his whole life with everything that he is and all that he possesses,

and that under His guidance and in His service he should deal with his possessions in the manner that is best.

Here is what that should look like:

Philippians 3:7–8 (ESV)

7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ

No doubt, that’s a daunting demand.

But brethren, even in this...

…our Lord is unfathomably benevolent:

Luke 18:29–30 (ESV)

29 . . . “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God,

30 who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.”

Click Off

This isn’t a losing proposition...

Not in the end!

It’s just a long-term investment strategy!

-Alright, let’s read our final two verses.

At first they don’t seem to be connected...

(Particularly in the English rendering of the ESV)

…but in the grammar and syntax of the original...

…that connection seems undeniable to me.

The NASB better brings out that connection...

So, for sake of time...

…we’re just going to read it in it:

Luke 14:34–35 (NASB95)

34 “Therefore, salt is good; but if even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned?

35 “It is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown out...

Now, this is a proverb/illustration...

…that Jesus used...

On multiple occasions...

To make different points.

So, we need to be careful...

…that we don’t assume that...

…the application has to be the same...

…on every occasion.

In fact, I think to do so, here...

…would cause us to...

…misunderstand its proper application.

Again, for the sake of time...

…I’m going to defer to a commentator...

…to explain its application here:

Luke, Volumes 1 & 2 (Being Worth Our Salt)

What Jesus said about salt that isn’t salty can also be said of a disciple who is not really a disciple.

In the same way that salt has to be salty in order to be salt, so also a disciple has to be a disciple in order to be a disciple!

This means being a disciple in the biblical sense: a hating-your-family, carryingyour-cross, renouncing-everything-for-Jesus disciple.

A disciple who does not love Jesus more than anything else he loves is not his disciple. A disciple who does not carry his cross in daily death to self is not his disciple. A disciple who does not give everything over to Jesus is not his disciple.

However extreme this may sound, it is Jesus himself who says that unless we do these things, we cannot be his disciples.

It’s that absolute.

And that’s reinforced...

…in what he finishes with at the end:

Luke 14:35 (ESV)

35 ...He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

The New English Translation better encapsulates...

...the imperative in the original:

Luke 14:35 (NET)

35 ...The one who has ears to hear had better listen!”

Let’s ask the Lord, to...

Gives us ears to hear...

Minds to understand...

Hearts to obey!

Amen?

(Click Off)