Luke 12:8-12; 14:25-33 - Acknowledge & Renounce

INTRODUCTION

For a few weeks now we’ve been following Jesus as he heads for the cross. We’ve been considering what it means to deny ourselves take up our crosses and follow him as he set his face toward Jerusalem.

The way may be lonely, uncomfortable, and even discouraging, but we draw strength in prayer and believe that their is eternal reward at the end of following him… so we press on in prioritizing the kingdom of Jesus, proclaiming the kingdom of Jesus, and praying for the kingdom of Jesus to come.

This morning we continue to consider the way of Jesus as we follow him.

His cross we will remember on Good Friday.

His resurrection we will celebrate on Resurrection Sunday.

His ascension is remembered forty days after that on, Thursday, May 29th.

And we eagerly await another great holy day yet to come, the Day of Jesus’ Return.

Until then (or until we depart to be with him), we continue to follow Jesus along the way of the cross, which, as we’ve seen, involves many things, but none more fundamental than the two things we will focus on today—acknowledging Jesus before men and renouncing all that we have.

[TS] Let's consider both of things this morning, but before we do, let’s pray.

[PRAYER]

MAJOR IDEAS

If we are going to follow Jesus, we must acknowledge Jesus before men (Luke 12:8-12).

Luke 12:8–12 NASB95

“And I say to you, everyone who confesses Me before men, the Son of Man will confess him also before the angels of God; but he who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God. “And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him. “When they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not worry about how or what you are to speak in your defense, or what you are to say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”

[EXP] The true believer acknowledges Christ before men, and Jesus (the Son of Man) will confess him before the angels of God in Heaven, which is to say, Jesus will confess him before God Himself. If we acknowledge Jesus before people in the world, he will acknowledge us before his Father in heaven.

Those who acknowledge Jesus will hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant!”

Those who deny Jesus will hear, “Away from me; I never knew you!”

This acknowledging or confessing of Jesus is not something we do to be saved, it’s something we do because we are saved. We acknowledge Jesus as a fruit of our salvation.

It’s something we do because we recognize the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ as the Holy Spirit reveals the glory of Jesus to us.

Many of the Pharisees—that strict, Jewish religious sect that cared more about appearing religious than knowing God—they denied Jesus because they refused to see his glory. They denied the revelation of God in Jesus by the Spirit. By doing this, they shut themselves up in the dark, refusing the light of God’s glorious forgiveness, which is only available in Jesus as he is revealed by the Spirit.

They said that what they saw in Jesus was the work of Satan rather than Spirit, and so long as they persisted in that blasphemy, they would never be forgiven.

[APP] Anytime you deny Jesus as he is revealed by the Spirit, you rob yourself of salvation, and there are many ways of doing this.

Anytime you say, “Jesus wasn’t really born of a virgin,” you deny what the Holy Spirit reveals about Jesus.

Anytime you say, “Jesus didn’t really live a sinless life,” you deny what the Spirit reveals about Jesus.

Anytime you say, “Jesus didn’t really die on a cross or rise from the dead or ascend to heaven,” you deny what the Spirit reveals about Jesus.

Anytime you say, “Jesus isn’t really God,” you deny what the Holy Spirit reveals about Jesus.

The Holy Spirit inspired the Bible, the Word of God, and in that word he has revealed Jesus to us—and every day people die denying what the Spirit reveals through Word concerning Jesus. Because they die denying what the Spirit says about Jesus in the Word, it will not be forgiven.

So in this acknowledging of Jesus before men, we must confess before them what the Spirit reveals about Jesus in the Word. Otherwise, how would we know what to confess about Jesus?

But as we acknowledge what the Spirit has revealed, we are also encouraged to trust the Spirit for the words as we acknowledge Jesus. Listen again to vv. 11-12...

Luke 12:11–12 NASB95

11 “When they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not worry about how or what you are to speak in your defense, or what you are to say; 12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”

[ILLUS] In Luke 12, Jesus is speaking to a crowd that had within it many Pharisees. Imagine that as Jesus says these words there is a Pharisee-in-training nearby. He has listened intently to Jesus. He is on the verge of following Jesus. He wants to acknowledge Jesus, but he knows that if he does he will be interrogated by his fellow Pharisees. What would he say to them? What would he say to anyone about why he decided to follow Jesus if they began to question him? To him—and those like him, Jesus says...

Luke 12:11–12 NASB95

11 “When they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not worry about how or what you are to speak in your defense, or what you are to say; 12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”

[APP] The same Spirit who revealed Jesus to us will teach us what to say when its time to confess him. We will not be left alone, because the Holy Spirit (the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ!) will be with us in that very hour so that we acknowledge Jesus faithfully.

[TS]…

Renounce All That You Have (Luke 14:25-33)

Luke 14:25–33 NASB95

25 Now large crowds were going along with 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 carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. 28 “For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? 29 “Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 “Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 “Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 “So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.

I like how the ESV puts v. 33...

Luke 14:33 ESV

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

The disciple of Jesus must renounce his family and his life in favor of Jesus (Luke 14:26-27).

Luke 14:26–27 NASB95

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 carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.

[EXP] The disciple of Jesus must renounce his family and his life. What does that mean? It means that, for the disciple of Jesus, love for Jesus must be greater than love for anyone or anything else. Devotion to Jesus must be greater than devotion to anyone or anything else.

Our love and devotion to Jesus must so far out distance our love for anything or anyone else that nothing and no one is a close second.

Our love for Him must be so great that, by comparison, our love for anyone or anything else would seem like hate.

As commanded by Jesus, we must love our families, but if we refuse to prioritize Jesus above our families then we worship our families as idols. That would mean we actually love them more than we do Jesus, and we cannot be His disciples if that is true.

Likewise, our lives are gifts from God, but if we worship our lives as idols then we cannot be disciples of Jesus. We must love him more than we love living.

We must take up our crosses, die to ourselves, and follow him.

[ILLUS] The Apostle Paul had many co-laborers in spreading the good news. Like Paul, many of these co-laborers took up their crosses, leaving their families behind and putting their lives on the line, as they preached Jesus far and wide, but not everyone endured to the end.

In 2 Timothy 4:10 we read the sad account of Demas.

Demas had once been a co-laborer alongside Paul. He had been one who took up his cross, but in 2 Timothy 4:10, the Apostle Paul writes, “Demas, having loved this present word, has deserted me and gone...”

It seems that at some point, Demas stopped taking up his cross and went back to doing what he wanted.

Will that be us too? Or have we counted the cost?

[TS] …

The disciple of Jesus counts the cost of renouncing all that he has and following Jesus (Luke 14:28-32).

Luke 14:28–32 NASB95

28 “For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? 29 “Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 “Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 “Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.

[ILLUS] I once saw video of a young guy coming to the finish line of a long distance race. Obviously he put everything he had into the race because as he approached the finish line, his legs began to cramp and, no longer being able to run, he was barely able to walk. Before long he hit the ground with only a few feet before the finish line.

People were cheering for him, yelling for him to get up; shouting things like, “You can do it!” but it didn’t look he could do it. One runner passed him and then another… but then the grounded runner got creative. Only a few feet from the finish line, he turned to the side and just rolled over and over like you would rolling down a hill—and he finished the race!

Here Jesus is asking us to judge whether or not we have what it takes to finish the race of following him.

It won’t be easy. It may not be pretty. But do we have what it take to cross the finish line?

[EXP] Jesus speaks of two examples in vv. 28-32.

In the first example, Jesus spoke of a man building a tower. He doesn’t just wake up one day and say, “I think I’ll build a tower.” No, first he calculates if he will have enough to buy all the supplies and hire all the labor necessary to complete the tower.

If he doesn’t do that and only builds his tower halfway, he’ll be the village idiot.

In the next example, Jesus spoke of a king with 10,000 men going to war with another king who had 20,000. He doesn’t just say to the king with 20,000, “Let do this,” because he and his men will likely lose if they are outnumbered two to one. No, he considers if he has a strategy or if his soldiers have weapons which might even the odds.

If he can’t even the odds or give himself the advantage, he will send a delegation and ask for peace.

But when it comes to following Jesus as His disciple, what is it that will enable us to finish what we’ve started? What is it that will enable us to fight to the end?

[App] What we need to endure to the end is love for Jesus above all—but we will only love him to the end because he loved us to the end.

The Bible says that “God gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life,” (John 3:16).

Jesus said that greater love has no man than this, that he lay his life down for his friends (John 15:13).

And that is what Jesus did for us—he laid down his life on the cross so our sins could be forgiven and so we could be reconciled with God if we believe.

If we have believed… if we have experienced his love, we will love him enough to endure to the end.

[TS] One final point on renouncing before we’re done.

The disciple of Jesus renounces all his possessions (Luke 14:33).

Luke 14:33 NASB95

33 “So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.

[ILLUS] The rich young ruler came to Jesus looking for eternal life. He said he had loved his neighbor as himself. Jesus said he still lacked one thing—to sell his possessions and follow him.

The rich young ruler walked away sad because he loved a false god more than he loved the one true God—and that false god was his stuff.

The rich young ruler would not inherit eternal life.

He could not be a disciple of Jesus.

[EXP] Jesus says that His disciples will give up “all (their) own possessions.” We might think that this means that we aren’t allowed to own or have anything. But it means that we will give up any of our things that keep us from following Him and it means that whatever we do have—whatever we do own—actually comes from Him, belongs to Him, and must be used to serve Him. What we are talking about is—stewardship.

A steward is “a person employed to manage another’s property.” Everyone is actually a steward because everyone has received all they have from God, and they will be held accountable by Him for how they use it.

We have houses, cars, jobs, and money that have been entrusted to us by Jesus and are meant to be used in service to Him as His disciple.

Are you willing to give up your things if they keep you from following Jesus?

Are you willing to use your things to bring glory and honor to Jesus?

Both questions get at what it means to renounce our possessions as disciples of Jesus.

[TS] …

CONCLUSION

Acknowledge Jesus before men, and renounce all that you have in favor of him.

If we don’t do these things, we cannot be his disciples.

Will you take his words seriously this morning?

[PRAYER]

————————

Hymn 605, In the Sweet By and By

To our bountiful Father above We will offer our tribute of praise For the glorious gift of His love And the blessings that hallow our days

In the sweet by and by We shall meet on that beautiful shore

Let’s us count the cost, finish the race, and meet on that beautiful shore!