The High Cost of Discipleship

Opening Comments:

Please meet me in your copy of God’s Word in Luke 14:25-35. If you’re using one of our church Bibles, you can find your place on pg.#821. This is God’s Holy Word. Let’s read it together.

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.”

Introduction:

Today, our focus shifts from the mid-day Sabbath meal at a prominent Pharisee's home, to a public setting as Jesus journeys toward Jerusalem and ultimately death.

Remember Luke often groups teachings thematically rather than strictly chronologically in order to present an intentional progression. The themes we saw in v.1-25: Pride, Self Righteousness, humility, generosity, God's kingdom and human response now expand into a broader teaching on the 'High Cost of Discipleship.'

1.) The Cost of Discipleship. (v.26-27)

Jesus had many disciples in the broad sense of word and these disciples held varying levels of commitment.

As Jesus neared the cross, he began to narrow the definition of 'disciple' so significantly that by the book of Acts, it becomes synonymous with 'Christian.' Biblically, 'Christian' is not a broad term.

Society has watered down christianity into something that lacks true meaning in an attempt to make it more palatable and popular.

We've morphed Christ's message into a cheap imitation that is a man-centered, self-help, self-love, pop psychology that allows people live as they please and do what makes them happy as long as they do the “Jesus thing” on Sunday.

However, the biblical gospel is God-centered, not man-centered. It calls for abasement and self-sacrifice, not self-love. It's spiritually focused theology, not subjective psychology. It demands a radical and extreme faith commitment to Christ above all else.

It demands:

A.) A Relational cost (v.26)

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.

Jesus often used jarring paradox’s in his teaching to make a point. At first glance this almost seems like a contradiction because the Bible tell us to

Honor our fathers and mothers.

Love our enemies.

For Parents to love their children.

For Husbands and wives to honor and love one another.

To love one another as Christ loved us.

What exactly is Jesus saying when he call his disciples to hate their parents, spouses, children, and even their own lives?

Hate- is a Semitic way of expressing preference.

Jesus is saying that if you’re a true follower of Christ then:

He will have first place in your life. That you will love him so much that our love for anyone else will be pale in comparison

That he comes before the companionship and pleasure of family .

He is to be our first loyalty and all other relationships must take second place.

All other loves must be subordinate to loving God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

If that wasn't the case then people shouldn't pretend to be his disciples!

Application: To love our families and to love others is not wrong. But, we can focus on those we love too much. If we're honest with ourselves, this is an area where so many struggle.

Our culture is so radically anti-family that Christians have overreacted and made our families the center of our Christian ethics and morals. While caring for your family is right and proper and good; Some of us love our families too much. We spend so much time making sure our children develop athletically, intellectually, culturally, artistically, and socially That we leave their spiritual well-being out altogether.

We spend more time in the week shuttling them to practices and recitals then we do reading the Bible with them and praying for their souls.

If we place our families next to God under a microscope our lives would reveal that we hate God and love our children disproportionately. That we are disciples of our family and not disciples of Jesus.

The proper way to love our families is to "hate" them because our love for God is greater. In fact, if my love for God is greater it will actually enable me to love my family greater.

Genuine disciples of Jesus are the greatest lovers of God, family, and friends.

A genuine disciple of Jesus must give second place to everything and everyone else.

That may seem harsh at surface level, but when our perspective is right and our priorities focus on the right things it makes the lives of those around us better.

B.) A Sacrificial Cost. (v.26b-27)

Luke 14:26–27 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. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

The life of a disciple of Jesus is a life of perpetually dying self. It is sacrificing your rule over your own life and submitting instead as a slave to the authority of Jesus. Even if that leads to suffering and death.

That's why Jesus referenced across. It was a symbol of execution. Salvation found in Christ alone is a treasure so precious that true disciples are willing to give up their lives if God so desires. Not to earn salvation but because Christ gave everything for then to get it.

The life of a disciple of Jesus is a life full of sacrifice.

This idea that if we come to Christ everything will be a bed of roses, you'll be rich and healthy and famous and fabulous is absolutely foreign to the Bible and to church history.

Read the accounts of the martyrs in the first 400 years of church history. You will find nothing about their lives being full of riches and comfort. All of the Apostles but one died a martyrs death. The only one who didn’t was tortured and marooned because he wouldn’t die.

The same holds true of the so called “Dark Ages”(Wycliffe and Huss), “Renaissance”(Tyndale) and the “Reformation” Where being a genuine follower of Christ cost you your life.

Go research what your Christian brothers and sisters around the world are enduring in places like Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, India, China, Myanmar and on and on the list goes.

Being a genuine disciple of Jesus requires everything.

Jim Elliot. Elliot (1927–56), a famous missionary to Ecuador who was killed by the Auca people (along with his 4 missionary partners), said, “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”

Being a disciple of Jesus calls for sacrifice.

There is a high cost to being a true disciple of Christ. That's why Jesus then calls people to:

2.) Calculate the Cost. (v.28-33)

Jesus uses two parallel illustrations of a man building a tower and a king fighting a war to help his followers understand the sacrifice required in following Him.

A.) The Illustrations:

1.) Building a tower. (v.28-30)

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.’

Picture of a man contemplating building a tower. Maybe this is a storage tower for grain or perhaps a watch tower for protection. Either way this is a large scale construction project that everyone in town would've known about.

In first century Palestine preserving your honor and not bringing shame on yourself or your family was of utmost importance. So to spend time laying the foundation but not being able to finish the project because you ran out of money would have made you a laughingstock and brought incredible shame.

That's why Jesus says before a man will endeavor to build a large tower like this he would sit down and calculate all of the construction cost to be certain he had enough money to complete the project.

2.) A King Fighting a war. (v.31-32)

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.

Here we have a King going out to war against another King with a much larger force.

Before going into battle that King would sit down and assess the terrain where the battle would occur and the logistics it would take to get his forces into the battle. He'd also make sure he had enough horses, chariots, and weaponry to battle the much larger force. He’d even go over the strategy with his commanders all too be certain his force of 10,000 could win against his opponents 20,000.

If none of this added up, then he wouldn't go into battle but instead send out a delegation to negotiate terms of peace and surrender.

B.) Application (v.33)

Both of these parables make the same point but was slightly different emphasis.

The man building the tower was free to build or not build as he chose. The king was being invaded and had to make a split second decision. But they both had to "sit down" and take time to weigh all of the costs.

Every thing we do in life requires us to calculate the cost.

So what is the cost of following Jesus?

C. S Lewis the renowned christian philosopher said this:

“Christ says, “Give me all. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want you. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. I don’t want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked—the whole outfit.”

As quoted by: R. Kent Hughes, Luke: That You May Know the Truth, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1998), 126–127.

Jesus isn't looking for emotionally driven, superficial, self seeking, temporary, transient followers. Real genuine faith is giving Christ everything. An unwavering commitment to Jesus come what may.

Is that a price you're willing to pay?

John Stott writes concerning the importance of counting the cost of commitment,

The Christian landscape is strewn with the wreckage of derelict, half-built towers—the ruins of those who began to build and were unable to finish. For thousands of people still ignore Christ’s warning and undertake to follow him without first pausing to reflect on the cost of doing so. The result is the great scandal of Christendom today, so-called ‘nominal Christianity.’ In countries to which Christian civilization has spread, large numbers of people have covered themselves with a decent, but thin, veneer of Christianity. They have allowed themselves to become somewhat involved; enough to be respectable but not enough to be uncomfortable. Their religion is a great, soft cushion. It protects them from the hard unpleasantness of life, while changing its place and shape to suit their convenience. No wonder the cynics speak of hypocrites in the church and dismiss religion as escapism.

(Basic Christianity [Downer’s Grove, Ill.: Inter-Varsity, 1978], 108). As quoted by: John MacArthur, Luke 11–17, MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2013), 287.

Conclusion:

Jesus concludes his difficult teaching with an analogy about salt.

Luke 14:34–35 ESV

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.”

To truly grasp the impact of this statement we need to understand the salt Jesus audience would have been familiar with.

Much of the salt in that region, particularly around the Dead Sea, was often impure because it was mixed with other minerals like gypsum. If this salt wasn't properly processed or if it was exposed to moisture, the actual sodium chloride could leach out, leaving behind a tasteless residue.

This residue looked like salt but had lost its essential quality – saltiness. It was useless, and couldn’t even be used for even basic tasks like fertilizing the soil or decomposing the manure pile. It was only fit for the footpaths or the garbage dump.

Let’s put all of this together:

Jesus has spoken of a love that places Him in a priority that by comparison, seems like hate for even our closest relationships and our own lives.

He has declared that true discipleship necessitates bearing our cross – a consistent act of self-denial and submission to Him as Lord, even in the face of hardship.

He has urged us to diligently calculate the cost, recognizing the level of commitment required to genuinely follow Him.

Now, the image of this potentially impure, easily spoiled salt serves as a powerful summation. Just as salt from the Dead Sea region could appear to be salt but lack its essential characteristic, so too can a person appear to be a disciple of Jesus but lack the wholehearted commitment required by Jesus.

A genuine disciple of Jesus possesses an unreserved and unwavering devotion to Him. This devotion permeates their lives, preserving them from the decay of the world and offering a potential influence of goodness to those around them.

But, Jesus cautions that salt can lose its taste, not in its fundamental nature (in the case of pure salt), but through contamination.

It becomes diluted, ineffective, and fails to fulfill its intended purpose.

In the same way, a false disciple is one whose commitment to Christ is compromised, mingled with worldly priorities, self-seeking motives, and a reluctance to fully embrace the demands of discipleship.

They may carry the label of "Christian," yet their lives lack the defining characteristic of true devotion. They are like the impure salt that has lost its savor – possessing no real benefit to the Kingdom of God. Such salt, Jesus states, is ultimately worthless and is discarded.

So the question before us this morning is critical: Are we genuine disciples of Jesus Christ, or have we settled for a superficial faith, diluted by this world, like impure salt that has lost its savor?

A genuine disciple:

Has a love for Christ that reigns supreme, guides their choices and shapes their deepest desires, even above family or personal comfort.

Willingly embraces their cross, accepting the sacrifices and challenges inherent in following Jesus, recognizing it as a path of ongoing self-denial for the sake of Jesus.

Has considered the cost and remains steadfast in their commitment, understanding that true discipleship demands their entire being. It is a faith that endures.

Functions as salt in the world, their lives bearing the unmistakable mark of Christ's love, truth, and righteousness, impacting those around them for His glory.

A false disciple:

Prioritizes the values and comforts of the world over Jesus, allowing earthly concerns and personal ambitions to overshadow their allegiance to Christ.

Avoids the hardship of the cross, seeking ease and convenience rather than embracing the sacrifices required for service in the Kingdom.

Has perhaps made a profession of faith without a true reckoning of the cost, resulting in a shallow commitment that falters when faced with adversity.

Is like tasteless, impure salt, failing to exert a meaningful influence for Christ in the world, their lives are indistinguishable from those who do not know Him.

Invitation:

Jesus' concluding exhortation, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear," is a solemn call to introspection.

Are we truly embodying the radical demands of discipleship that Jesus has articulated?

Or have we become diluted and ineffective, like the impure salt that has lost its savor?

Let us examine our hearts with honesty, carefully consider the true cost, and rededicate ourselves to the earnest pursuit of genuine discipleship for the sake of Christ and His Kingdom.