Gospel Surrender

The Sacrifice of the Christian: Coming to Jesus on His Terms

Introduction Let me begin with a pointed question: Are you willing to come to Jesus on His terms?

In our culture, we've adopted a version of Christianity that often invites people to come to Jesus on their terms.

“Just pray this prayer.”

“Believe these four spiritual laws.”

“Raise your hand.” None of which Jesus ever told anyone to do.

Instead, in Luke 14:25–35, Jesus lays out His terms—blunt, unfiltered, and non-negotiable.

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.”

Jesus Demands Superior Love

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.

Talk about strong. That’s an attention grabber. What does that mean?

What is Jesus saying when He says hate your father and mother, brother and sister, wife and children?

Am I really supposed to hate my wife and my kids?

What does this mean?

Jesus is saying something here.

Now, I want to be very careful, not only here but in every passage we study in this series, because there is a dangerous temptation for us to try to soften Jesus’ words.

And what it turns out is we try to soften Jesus’ words to justify the way we live.

This is a very dangerous way to approach Christianity.

Oh, He didn’t really mean that, He meant this over here.

We’ve got to take honest looks at the Scripture to see exactly what Jesus meant to His original hearers.

The key to context is that context is key.

Bottom line, this is not literal hatred—Jesus isn’t contradicting His call to love.

Instead, He’s emphasizing comparison.

Your love for Him must be so supreme, so far above all other loves,

That everything else pales in comparison,

even your love for your closest family.

We talked about context earlier so allow me to show you were we see this interpretation of the scripture.

So, let’s hold our place here. Go back to the left with me to Matthew 22.

I want to show you two passages in Matthew that shed light on what Jesus is saying here in Luke 14.

Matthew 22 is a conversation between Jesus and an expert teacher in the law.

It’s a passage that some of you, many of you maybe, are familiar with. 

Matthew 22:36, this teacher in the law asks Jesus this question, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

Okay, greatest primary, first, foremost commandment in the law.

“Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matt. 22:37—40).

First primary commandment in our lives is to love God with some of our hearts?

No, all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength.

This debunks the idea that there are priorities in our affections.

That God’s first and then family’s second and then this person third or fourth.

No, God is everything, all, primary, supreme, superior love.

Everything, all your affections belong to God, and the testimony of Scripture flows right from here.

Second’s like it, love your neighbor as yourself. We know this in all the New Testament.

When love for God is supreme in your life, the result is love for who?

Not for each other.

They go together.

Love for each other springs from love for who?

For God.

Loving Him is supreme, it’s superior love.

Now, keep turning back to the left and you’ll come to Matthew 10.

Clearly there is a love that supersedes all other loves.

Loving God, loving Christ.

And you get Matthew 10 and you see a passage that’s very familiar to what we’re looking at in Luke 14.

Listen to what Jesus says there, verse 37, see if this doesn’t sound familiar.

“Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me” (Matt. 10:37—38).

See the picture there.

Here in Matthew 10 what you’ve got is a strong comparison here, your love for me is far greater than your love for mother or father, son or daughter.

We bring that context into Luke 14, and we see Jesus use this word, hate, obviously a strong word, even an offensive word, and we don’t need to try to soften this picture.

I believe what Jesus is communicating is clear.

Love for Him is so supreme, is intended to be so supreme among His disciples that every other love in this world is so far less that it looks like hate compared to this kind of love.

In comparison to Christ, in comparison to love for Christ, we hate the people we love.

Now, get the wording there.

It’s not that we don’t love them; the reality is this whole thing comes full circle.

This changes our perspective,

Because when love for God is supreme and love for God captivates our hearts then what kind of love are we showing to mother and father?

The love of who?

Of God, of Christ in us.

Same picture for marriage, wife or children.

Men, how do you play out Ephesians 5:25?

Love your wife just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her.

How do you do that if love for Christ is not supreme in your life?

You can’t, it’s impossible.

It’s not that these are mutually exclusive.

They flow, one flows from the other but it starts with a reservoir of love for the supremacy of Christ and God.

This is how we should be approaching every facet of our lives.

This is the thing that we MUST get in line in order for all of the other things within our lives to flow the way that they were designed to do.

Our hearts conquered by, captivated by, a superior affection in God.

We know so little of this kind of love.

You hear it in the way we talk.

We say I know I need to be in church.

I know I need to take my kids to church.

I know I need to pray.

I know I need to study the Bible.

This is not Christianity. It’s not Christianity at all.

Christianity does not consist of begrudging obedience to Christ.

We know this on a human level.

If I come home from work and Raegan greets my at the door

When I get there I give her a big kiss.

She steps back and she says, “Well, what’s that for?”

Not that I don’t normally do that, but let’s just assume she steps back and says that.

Let me tell you what my response will absolutely not be, “Well, it says here on page 54 of the marriage manual that this is what I should do when I come home.”

At this point, she is taking the marriage manual and stuffing it down my throat, that’s what’s happening.

That’s no way to love.

But don’t we do that with our covenant relationship with God??

Do we not treat this love letter as a marriage guide??

Where did we get the idea that Christianity is begrudging obedience?

That Christianity…And this is the way we think about it.

Well, we let go of all the things in this world we love

and we do the things that we really don’t want to do but we need to do them to save our own skin.

Not Christianity, not biblical Christianity.

Biblical Christianity sees the supremacy of Christ

and is so infatuated by Him,

so drawn toward Him,

that our love for Him drives everything we do.

It is a superior love that changes our perspective on everything in this world.

Jesus Demands Exclusive Loyalty

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

The cross isn’t just a burden or tough season. In Jesus’ day, it was a symbol of shame and death. When Jesus said this, He meant: "Die to yourself." Die to your dreams, your plans, your comforts—your very self.

Galatians 2:20 says:

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”

If you're a disciple, you're a dead man walking. Your life is no longer yours—your plans are His, your money is His, your time is His.

Too many Christians try to follow Jesus without dying to themselves. That’s not Christianity—it’s religion.

Jesus Calls You to Count the Cost

Luke 14:28-33 Jesus gives two examples: a man building a tower and a king going to war.

In both cases, the point is clear: Don’t start what you’re not willing to finish. Jesus isn’t interested in emotional decisions or shallow commitments. He wants surrendered lives.

John Stott said,

“The Christian landscape is strewn with wreckage of derelict half-built towers… people who began to build and were unable to finish.”

This is the scandal of nominal Christianity—a cheap version of faith that costs little and means less.

Are you in this for the long haul, no matter what it costs you?

Jesus Demands a Wartime Mindset

Luke 14:34-35 Salt that loses its saltiness is useless.

I was looking over this imagery as I was studying this passage this week, and I couldn’t help but to think, our version of Christianity today really doesn’t look at the Christian life as a wartime faith.

We have more of a peacetime faith, don’t we?

And there is a stark difference between the two.

In wartime, you’re always asking the question,

“How can I sacrifice to advance the cause?

How can I spend every resource I have?

How can I best contribute to accomplishing the mission?”

We’re not indulging in pleasantries, we’re trying to figure out how best to accomplish the mission and sacrifice everything toward that.

In peacetime, pleasantries are the name of the game.

We ask questions like,

“How can we be more comfortable?

And how can we have more fun?

And how can we try new pleasures that we never have experienced before?”

There is a wartime and a peacetime way to approach life and Christianity.

You see the difference between the two in a ship called the Queen Mary.

It was built earlier in the 20th Century as a luxury liner with a whole array of indulgences designed to entice wealthy patrons.

It could fit up to 3,000 wealthy patrons on it at one time, larger, more massive than even the Titanic.

What’s interesting is, though,

for six years during World War II,

when the country was in a state of national emergency,

they took this same ship and they called upon the ship to help with transporting troops.

And all of a sudden, this ship was transformed from a luxury liner into a source of transport for troops.

Whereas 3,000 people could get on it before, now it could transport 15,000 soldiers at one time.

The whole ship was completely turned upside down to accommodate for accomplishing a mission instead of accommodating pleasures for wealthy patrons.

You go today to this ship, it’s now a museum,

basically, to its history, and what you can see is in some places they have it designed for troop transport

and they see eight bunks high where people would sleep, every thing, every detail was used to accomplish mission.

And then you can look in another room and you can see it designed as a luxury liner for people to enjoy the pleasures of the ship.

I would ask you, which image better describes Christianity in our context today

in our lives,

in our families,

in our homes

and in this church?

And I would put before us, let’s consider the cost.

What would happen if we looked square in the face of 4.5 billion plus people on this planet who are headed to a Christless eternity,

and we looked square in the face of 30,000 children today who are dying from either hunger or preventable diseases

and we said,

“We’re not going to use this ship anymore,

our lives,

our families,

this church,

we’re not going to use it to indulge our pleasures

and sit by the pool side anymore.

Instead, we’re going to transform everything to say how can we give our lives for the sake of accomplishing this mission.

It’s a radically different way to look at Christianity and Jesus says consider the cost.

You are warriors going into a battle.

Are you wanting to get in the battle or do you want to sit back?

This is the question He puts before us.

Jesus says you have radically different priorities when you’re my disciple.

The Christian life is not lived on a luxury liner, where comfort is the goal. It’s a battleship, where every resource is used for mission.

What then?

This is the point that I was to exhort you and to share my heart with you.

I genuinely believe that this body of believers is a ministry minded church.

I have witnessed and experienced your desire to share the gospel to our community.

I have attended much larger churches in the past who have put much less effort into outreach and evangelism

You even one up that by having members who actively do ministry outside of the church that are not officially organized by leaders in the church

I have witnessed and experienced your support of the ministries that we conduct on a weekly basis.

Just in the youth ministry alone, when I came in and began to lead the youth, I have received nothing but support and effort.

There has never been a time that I have approached anyone in this church with any request and they have told me “no”

I may have received a hesitant “yes” every now and then but it was still a yes!

I have encountered so many people who tell me “let’s get this done”

I have witnessed and experienced your financial support of the ministries that we have.

In that we were able to send 36 students to camp,

which at $300+ each, that is no small feat.

My family has personally felt the generosity of this church family.

At the end of June, my family made a big leap of faith.

I left my job, that was very consistent, so that I could spend more time here in ministry and more time pouring into my family.

By our budget projections, estimated averaged income/fixed expenses,

There was a deficit that I would have to cover each month to make the ends meet.

This church came in behind us and took up a love offering for us.

In that one love offering,

You made the ends meet for us for 6 months.

Just so you know, I have heard horror stories of congregations basically fighting the pastors in every little detail of the various ministries that are operating in the church.

That is not you.

Be encouraged by that.

Be encouraged by that toward a direction.

Remember, we are in a wartime faith.

There is a spiritual war going on for the eternities of millions of people.

In the grand strategy of a battle, if soldiers in a battle are experiencing victory, do they just sit down and pause?

No! That would be ridiculous

Why would we give the enemy time to regroup?

Soldiers who are winning a battle press forward harder.

They move swiftly in this time of strategic advantage.

So, we must ask ourselves,

“is there more that I can do?”

“ is there more that I can give?”

I’m not talking about finances here;

The things you can give are innumerable

Your Time

Your Effort

Your Power

Your Love

Your Grace

Your Humility

Your Comfort

Your will

Your family

Your life

This is just to name only a few.

This brings a certain weight to the wartime mindset that we are supposed to have.

Luke 14, Jesus tells us that we must “bear our cross” in order to follow Him.

I don’t believe that this is in reference to burdens even though the principle can extent to that as well.

I believe that He is saying that we must bear our cross,

Die to everything that we hold dear in comparison to our devotion to Him.

Even our lives.

That is a very unpopular thought in our cultural Christianity

but it is the truth.

As we close out this time

We always want to provide a time of response.

Let me return to the question: Have you come to Jesus on His terms? Are you following Jesus on His terms?

Total surrender

No holding back

Placing everything you are before Him and saying it’s yours.

Are you saying no to the luxurious Christianity.

Not the cultural version.

Not the watered-down version.

Not the easy version.

His terms.

Because according to Jesus, anything less than complete, sacrificial surrender.

Is not discipleship at all.

“Whoever does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.” – Luke 14:33

This isn’t about adding Jesus to your life.

It’s about losing your life for Jesus.

So, have you ever truly come to Him… On His terms?