Building a Tower and a King Making War

Luke 14:25-35

As I’m studying through all the parables in the Gospels, I see there is a recurring theme throughout most of them, and that theme is true discipleship. We have talked briefly about the COST of true discipleship in the last few parables I did, but today we are going to look at one that really brings that reality into perspective. We’re going to look at three parables today but two of them are only a verse or two long.

Read Got Answers Article

“Suppose you learned that you had been given an all-expense-paid condo on a beach in Tahiti, complete with airfare, a car, food, and a maid. You could brag about your new lifestyle, plan for it, and dream about it. But until you pack up and leave your current home, the new life is never really yours. You cannot live in Tahiti and your current hometown at the same time. Many people approach Christianity the same way. They love the idea of eternal life, escaping hell, and having Jesus at their beck and call. But they are not willing to leave the life they now live. Their desires, lifestyle, and sinful habits are too precious to them. Their lives may exhibit a token change—starting to attend church or giving up a major sin—but they want to retain ownership of everything else. Jesus is speaking in Luke 14 to those with that mindset.”

Turn with me to Luke 14

The term Christianity or Christian has become a very lose term now a days and has many different definitions according to secular society. One main reason for this is we know in the parable of the Sower and 4 soils, the second soil represents a person who believes with excitement but once persecution arises, they run away, denounce the faith and what they don’t realize is they run straight into hell. But today in countries like America where freedom of religion is practiced to somewhat of a degree, extreme persecution becomes nonexistent, Christianity becomes more attractive, the churches are flooded with unbelievers, uncommitted disciples, and now what it means to truly be a follower of Christ is blurred.

Turn with me to Luke 14:25 and we are going to look at the cost of true discipleship a little more in depth.

Luke 14:25-26 Read

· First, we see in vs 25, large crowds were following Him. At this point in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus has made a reputation and become famous. His miraculous works were so convincing and words so authoritative and winsome that people naturally flocked to Him.

· You may notice, later in the gospels, Jesus’ ministry tends to stay around the sea of Galilee. This was purposeful for many reasons, but one big reason was the crowds were getting so large and people were so anxious to touch Him or get near Him, they would tend to crowd Him, so He would have to escape to a boat and sit just offshore.

· If you recall the feeding of the 5,000, the gospels record that was 5K men, so biblical scholars estimate an actual number of around 20,000 people. So, these were very large crowds at times.

· A majority of those people just came for the healings, they came to hear Jesus talk then go back their lives, they didn’t care who He was or what He was offering spiritually. But we know from elsewhere in the gospels that some people wanted to follow Jesus or become His disciple.

Matthew 8:19 Then a scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.”

· Then Jesus explains to the scribe why he cannot follow Him.

· So, Jesus then explains to the crowd of unbelievers what it costs to follow Him in truth, to become a true disciple, to be truly saved.

o A quick reminder. You must be a disciple of Christ to be saved. If you’re not a disciple, you’re not saved. Christian means disciple. I mentioned that in my last sermon, so I won’t go deep into it again, but just so were all on the same page.

· Jesus sets the price of being His disciple and He sets it very high. He says if you don’t hate your family, you can’t be His disciple. We can’t take this literally of course or Jesus would be contradicting Himself. His second commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. So, you should love yourself and everybody else in the world.

· Exodus 20:12 children are to honor their parents, Eph. 5:25 husbands are to love their wives, Titus 2:4 wives are to love their husbands and parents love their children.

· To say you love something and hate the other is a Hebrew way of saying you prefer something over the other.

· God uses this saying when He says, “I have loved Jacob, but Esau I hated.” He didn’t actually hate Esau, He just preferred Jacob by giving His promise through Him.

First, anyone who comes to Jesus for salvation, must prefer God over their family. Because your family can be a great influence on you, one of the greatest actually. And Jesus knew that salvation will actually bring turmoil into the home as new believers try to co-exist with unbelievers. Unbelieving family members may even ostracize a member who believes the Gospel.

Genesis 3:15 “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers…”

· The offspring of Satan are unbelievers, the offspring or seed of eve is eventually Jesus and we become children of God along with Him. And there is enmity between us, we cannot get along.

2 Corinthians 6:15“what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?”

Matthew 10:34-36 (Turn and Read)

· It’s a blessing if your earthly family is also your spiritual family in Christ, but it is not always that way. Jesus warns that families would be divided over Him. When this happens, a true disciple will choose Christ over their family.

· Olivia and I choosing to follow Christ and leave family.

Matthew 10:37 (Turn and Read)

· Jesus is salvation correct? No one can get to the Father but through Me.

· If anyone loves anyone more than Jesus, more than salvation, they are not worthy to have salvation.

o Our family members are not usually extremely hostile to us.

· Jews in the first century and Jews even today, if you publicly follow Christ, you will be kicked out of your family, they will disown you and you are dead to them, never to be welcomed back. So, the Jewish community would really understand this, becoming a Christian came with a huge cost. The cost of your family. There are no casual converts to Christianity in the Jewish community.

· It’s sad that in the United States, Christianity is such a lose term and can mean anything really.

Luke 14:27 (Turn and Read)

· First, we had a call to give up your family, if need be, to follow Jesus.

· Second, a person who wants to come to Jesus must hate even his own life, to pick up their cross. The call to salvation is a call to self-denial. Salvation means giving your life to Jesus which means you are no longer the reigning authority in your life, you are giving that up. You are now submitting yourself as a slave to Jesus’ authority as Lord, King and Master.

o Submit yourself as a slave. That’s a term that doesn’t really sit well with people. Slavery has become a very ugly word, especially when we think of the most recent slavery in our country, it was a very bad slavery, with evil masters who mistreated their slaves.

o Plus, we don’t want to see ourselves as slaves. This is America, the land of the free. We may be free from a dictator or monarch, but no one is actually truly free.

Romans 6:16 (Turn and Read) No one is free, you are either slave to sin or slave to righteousness.

o The Bible never condemns slavery as a social structure, but it does condemn evil.

Ephesians 6:5 (Turn and read)

Ephesians 6:9 (Turn and read)

o So even in the first century, slavery was a normal social structure. We can compare it today with an employee and employer relationship in which, while you are at work, your employer controls what you do, oversees you, tells you what to do.

o You go to an interview, what are you doing? Selling yourself in a sense.

o What would happen if one day you walked up to your boss and you said: “I’m in charge now, I decide what I’m going to do at work.” Probably wouldn’t be working there anymore.

o The major difference between today and the first century social structure is back then you were an employee, but the employer controlled your whole life, you lived with them, and they controlled everything about you. This wasn’t a bad thing, this was very good, if you had a good master who took care of you.

o And Jesus is the best master you could give your life to, and that’s understating it.

o Slave is the best term to describe who we are. But were not really slaves, we are sons of God, but we have to have that slave mindset.

Mark 10:43-45 (Turn and Read) We must still have a mindset of being slave to all.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (Turn and Read) You are not your own, you were bought with a price.

Galatians 4:4-7 (Turn and Read) With the slavery mindset, we are no longer actual slaves, but sons and heirs.

· Back to the verse, picking up your cross is a call to complete self-abandonment even to the point of death.

· Carrying your cross was done before your crucifixion. So, carrying a cross meant imminent death.

· The heavenly treasure is so valuable, so precious, that true disciples are willing to give up their lives, if God wills it, to gain eternal life.

Now I want to point out that these are not pre-salvation works to try to obtain heaven, they don’t add to your salvation, they don’t even get you there.

Ephesians 2:8, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, if is the gift of God.

John 6:65, Jesus declared: “no one can come to the Him unless it has been granted him from the Father.”

· Jesus is again talking to the multitude of unbelievers, and he is explaining to them what true disciples are and what they are willing to do. The people then can evaluate their hearts to see if they are true followers or not.

· If their names are written in the book of life, if God has elected them, they realize how extremely valuable salvation is, and this message makes sense. If not, then this message offends and drives people away and they now know they are not true followers of Christ.

· Jesus is not discouraging discipleship by any means, He is simply stating the price, a person who comes to Him must renounce all that they have, including their life. Jesus does not want half-heartedness. According to Revelation 3, He hates the lukewarm people the most, people who think they have something, or think they are His follower when they are not.

o He would rather a person be hot or cold, a true believer or a Christ denouncing unbeliever, and this message makes that happen. It lets the lukewarm people know they are lukewarm, and they now need to pick a side. Choose Christ or not.

· This is why preaching the gospel is so important. It separates the sheep from the goats, the true believers from unbelievers. The message will either save or condemn.

· Jesus does not want followers who rush into discipleship without thinking what is involved.

Luke 14:28-33 (Turn and read)

· The first illustration pictures a man wanting to build a tower. In this time period, preserving one’s honor and avoiding bringing shame to the family was extremely elevated. A building project of any kind would have been visible by the community, and not finishing it would bring great shame to that individual.

o So, it was common sense to sit down and calculate the cost to see if you could finish the project.

· The first illustration is voluntary, you can choose to build or not build. The second illustration is involuntary. A king is thrust into battle with another king. The battle is coming, and he has to prepare.

· He would most likely assess the logistics, terrain, weaponry and what strategic and tactical advantages he may have despite the enemy having more than double the manpower. If he knew he couldn’t win the battle, he would try his best to send a delegation to negotiate terms of peace, because going into battle would be suicide for him and his men.

· These two illustrations demonstrate the importance of understanding the sacrifice required when making a commitment to Christ, which is true of all the illustrations in all of Jesus parables.

· The point is that people count the cost before taking on any important task in life.

o How many of you walk into a car dealership, pick a car, and say start the papers, I want that one! Without ever looking at the price. Salesmen might like that.

o But what’s usually the first thing we look at in a car. The price. What’s it cost. Oh, too much, don’t even bother looking at that one. But you didn’t even look at the features, doesn’t matter, can’t afford it, it’s a waste of my time.

o The same goes for a house, first thing, how much is it.

o Vacations, hotels, adding a room onto your house, driving around looking at gas stations, looking at anything in any store, everyone counts the cost first before purchasing it.

o Except following Christ.

· People count the cost before taking on any important task in life. How much more important is it to count he cost before committing oneself to Christ.

Luke 14:33 (Read again).

· First, we must give up family. Second, giving up on oneself. Now third, we have to give up one’s own possessions. There are no exceptions or exemptions to these absolute requirements. None.

· All his own possessions encompass not only money but all material things, houses, vehicles, all the stuff we have.

· This isn’t a call to socialism, that we must sell everything and live in poverty. But true followers of Christ realize we are stewards of everything and owners of nothing. And if God requires it back, we give it to Him, it’s His anyway, we are just holding onto it.

o Let’s say your sweeper breaks, your neighbor lets you borrow theirs for a time. You use it several times. Then your neighbor comes back to collect it back. What do we do? Do we whine and cry and scream, why neighbor? Why? Or do we give it back with a happy attitude and say thank you very much.

o That is how we are to treat every possession we have. God owns it, it’s His, He is just letting us use it in the meantime. Our life is God’s, He created you and me, He has the right to take it at any time He pleases.

o And if the Lord asked a true disciple to give up all, they would be willing. Why? Because loving obedience is their highest duty and joy.

· Again, these are not human works that can earn salvation, which is by faith alone. But instead, they are distinguishing marks of true faith.

James 2:14, 17-18, 26 (Turn and read).

· If you have faith but have no works, especially these works that Jesus has laid out. Your faith according to Scripture is dead faith, non-saving faith.

· I also don’t want to alarm anyone. These works will grow, if you are a new convert, if you just started following Christ, these attributes may not be super strong, but you will see them grow exponentially. If you don’t, if giving up everything in your life is not an option, seek Jesus, place all your faith and trust in Him.

o Matthew 7:8 Those who seek will find.

How many people will there be in the end thinking they are true followers, but they are not?

Matthew 7:21,23 (Turn and read)

· Who calls Jesus Lord? Do atheist? Unbelievers?

o True followers, and people who think they are followers. The people who think they are followers but are false followers, are many. The majority. There will be many people on that day expecting to get into heaven only to be turned away by Jesus Himself and eternally shocked that they didn’t make it.

· Only those who do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. It’s God’s will (Romans 12:1) that we present our bodies as living and holy sacrifices, (that’s giving up everything in our life to God).

· And also (Romans 8:29) that He conforms us to His Son Jesus and He can only do that if we submit our lives and everything in our lives to Jesus. It is only those people who will enter heaven. 

Matthew 7:13-14 (Turn and read)

· Few will find heaven. Few are true followers; few will be saved. The rest, the majority, will find themselves in an eternal hell. I don’t mean to be doom and gloom, but that is just the reality of Scripture, that is how God set it up, that is how it is going to happen.

· These are healthy truths to know, for everyone to know, even unbelievers or followers who aren’t totally committed yet. So, they can evaluate the cost, give their lives to Christ so they can enter the exhilaration of full-blooded discipleship and enter eternal life with Jesus Christ.

Matthew 13:44-46 (Turn and Read)

· Salvation is hidden for most people, as we saw in Matthew 7, few will find it.

· But to those whom God has chosen to find it, they realize the value of eternal life, the extreme cost, and they are willing to sell all that they have to purchase it.

· They know what it cost, and they don’t hesitate to buy it, because they know the benefits exceedingly outweigh the risks.

Mark 8:36 “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?”

· Those people profit nothing, except a Godless eternity.

I have talked to several people who know this truth, but they are afraid to give up everything, they are afraid to make that big leap if you will. They are afraid to give up their sins, they are afraid how much their lives will change, or how God will change them.

I just ask them, is that stuff worth going to hell for eternity over? And then I reassure them, the other side, the way, the truth and the life, choosing Jesus is beyond worth it. Confess Him as Lord, believe God raised Him from the dead and you will be saved.

If you are saved, and you are a true disciple, use this message today to help others, to evaluate others, talk about this stuff, are the people in your lives true followers? Find out, if not, bring them to the faith, bring them to Jesus, and help them become a disciple. Go, therefore and make disciples.