What Cost to Follow Jesus?

In our modern, comfortable world we are not used to sacrificing. When I listen to people about why they choose to go to one church or another, it is something like, “we like the pastor,” “the music is uplifting,” “I felt comfortable there.” In other words, it is some variation of being comfortable, entertained, or appreciated. Now I get it; when you have multiple decent churches to choose from, that all preach the gospel, then the most important reason to pick a church does not help you decide; that means that the only criteria left to make a decision is relatively unimportant things; it is a privilege to have multiple gospel preaching churches to choose from, and we ought to be thankful for them.

However, if this is all church is to you, then you have a big problem. If you go to church to be comfortable, and entertained, then you have missed Jesus message of sacrifice. When most people want to get more people to come to them, they will try to appeal to people and make it as easy to sign up as possible. That’s just basic marketing; but Jesus did not do this. He did not try to have a wide tent where everyone was accepted. Instead, he demanded sacrifice. He went way beyond asking you to accept a bit of discomfort or boredom. He went way beyond asking you to ignore whether you feel accepted or appreciated. He demanded that anyone willing to follow him be prepared to put him before everything you love; everything you own; even before life itself. He is not interested in the fair-weather Christian.

Now what did Jesus mean by being his disciple? He does not mean that there are two categories of Christians; ordinary Christians and disciples. It’s not like its Ok to be average if you don’t want to sacrifice that much. It’s way starker than that. To be Jesus’ disciple is to be a Christian.

He is speaking to the crowds - to the multitudes who like Jesus, who love to hear him speak, but who are not necessarily prepared to recognize he is the Messiah the Son of God. These are the people who don’t think they need to repent of their sins. They are perfectly comfortable with who they are and their lifestyle. He could have increased his following exponentially if he hadn’t been so severe about discipleship. I mean really Jesus, don’t you want to be sensitive to those who are seeking for God? Don’t preach so tough! You’ll turn them away! Perhaps he didn’t care about that. Jesus only wants those who are prepared to pay any price to follow him.

What if it Costs you your Family?

Now if you are normal, you are probably a bit disturbed by Jesus’ language. “Hate” your father/mother/wife/children/brothers/sisters? Aren’t we supposed to love everyone?

Luke 10:27–28 NKJV

So he answered and said, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’ ” And He said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will Ϛlive.”

1 John 3:15 NKJV

Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

So what’s going on? We clearly aren’t supposed to hate people. Rather, “hate” can mean “chose someone else instead.” If love is a choice, not an emotion, then hate is also a choice, not an emotion. Jesus is asking you, if you can’t have both your nearest and dearest family member - your parents, your spouse, your kids, your siblings - and Jesus too, which will you choose? If your parents cut you off unless you renounce this “Jesus thing” what will you do? If your spouse threatens to leave because they can’t tolerate you being a Christian, what will you do? If your children refuse to talk to you because you confess Christ, what will you do?

Genesis 29:30–31 ESV

So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah, and served Laban for another seven years. When the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.

What if it Costs You Your Life?

But it is not just family. What if the price is your own life? What if you lived in, say, Nigeria or North Korea, where they are actively killing Christians? Would you keep silent to preserve your own life?

John and Betty Stam were a couple of young missionaries to China. They had joined the China Inland Mission, the one started by Hudson Taylor. They had recently graduated from Moody Bible Institute. John Stam had given the Graduating class address urging, “Dare we advance at God’s command in the face of the impossible?” In the fall of 1932 he sailed for Shanghai, expecting an assignment too dangerous for a family. He arrived to discover that the communists were gaining ground, missionaries were on the move. His fiance Betty had already gone to China to the inland, but she was there in Shanghai recovering from an illness. When she had been assigned to a mission station in the interior, she wrote this: When we consecrate ourselves to God, we think we are making a great sacrifice, and doing lots for Him, when really we are only letting go some little bitsy trinkets we have been grabbing; and when our hands are empty, he fills them with his treasures.

The young couple were soon married, and in September 1934 their daughter Helen was born. The young family moved to a little town in in the Anhui Province. The local leader assured them they would be safe.

But it was a surprise to everyone when that local leader appeared at the missionaries door only three months later to warn them that the Communists were coming. But it was too late. Before the Stams could get out, the troops were already there. The whole family was taken. That night Stam was ordered to write to mission leaders demanding a $20,000 US ransom. He concluded with this, knowing that ransoms were never paid:

Christian History Magazine—Issue 109: Eyewitnesses to the Modern Age of Persecution “May God Be Magnified”

My wife, baby and myself are today in the hands of communist bandits. Whether we will be released or not no one knows. May God be magnified in our bodies, whether by life or by death.

The next morning they were led to a nearby town, were they were placed in the office of the local postmaster. The kindly postmaster asked them were they were going. They said, “We do not know where the soldiers are going. We do not know where the other prisoners are going. But we, we are going to heaven.”

And they were right. The day following they were led up a little hill, and they were beheaded for the cause of Christ.

Their daughter, Helen, lived only because they hid her in a sleeping bag, and she was rescued later by the Chinese evangelist Lo-Ke Chou. He smuggled her out in a rice basket and eventually brought her to her grandparents, who were still serving in China at the time. She made it back to the States safely, where she became a teacher and raised a family of her own.

What happened to the church in China? In response to the news of the Stams’ deaths, several hundred new missionary recruits volunteered for service. The Chinese church went underground for many years. Today it is stronger than ever. China still is not free, but the church has multiplied since those early days. In John Stam’s day the protestant church in China numbered no more than a million people. Today the protestant church in China has been estimated as somewhere on the order of 30-50 million, depending on which estimate you believe. That’s only about 2-3% of the total population, but it is so much stronger than it was when the Stam’s were there. By the way, the province that the Stam’s went to, the Anhui Province, is the fourth most Christianized province in China (About 5% or 3 Million people). The soldiers not only could not stop it, the church in China continues to go on from strength to strength.

What if you didn’t Count the Cost?

Jesus then gives us two parables, both of which have the same point. It’s about counting the cost.

The first parable is someone who wanted to build a tower. Anyone would first sit down and get an estimate of the cost to construct it; if they didn’t they might end up with a useless pile of rocks, and everyone will mock them.

The second parable is that of a king who is going to war. He has 10,000, but unfortunately, his enemy has 20,000. Now any king will think very carefully before agreeing to fight under such circumstances. He might end up fighting anyway, but nobody takes on odds like that without thinking really hard about whether it would be better to surrender now, instead of losing a lot of men and having to take worse terms later.

Jesus is actively telling the crowds to think about what it will cost to be a Christian, and if you aren’t prepared to pay the price, don’t bother. It might cost you your family; it might cost you your life. Eternity is certainly worth it, never mind the rewards for faithful service; just eternity itself is more than enough. But if you think that being a Christian can make you rich, popular, and happy, then you really ought to count the cost first. Following Christ could cost you everything. Is that OK? Then welcome. If not? Jesus does not want those unwilling to pay the temporary price for eternal rewards.

What if it costs you Everything?

When Jesus says to renounce everything, he does not mean you have to sell everything and take a vow of poverty. He means that if necessary, you must be willing to give up anything you own to serve Jesus. If there is anything you have that you wouldn’t sacrifice for the cause of Christ, then that is what you value more than him.

What if you Aren’t Real?

Salt in Israel came from the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is only about 12-18% Sodium Chloride, and if not carefully processed has impurities like Gypsum (drywall is made out of this stuff) and Carnellite. Overly impure salt was unfit to eat, and was an environmental hazard. It could not be put on the manure pile because it still had enough salt in it to ruin the land even though it wasn’t edible. In the same way, some “Christians” are made of something other than Christianity. They look like Christians, but are worse than useless. In fact, they hinder true Christianity.

The warning “he who has ears to hear” means “Pay attention, this is important.”

So what about you? What if it costs you something to be a Christian? What if it costs you your possessions, your family, even your life? Is Christ worth all of that? I submit to you that he definitely is worth it all, but you must count the cost. Be aware that Jesus demands you be willing to sacrifice everything.

Now something weird happens when you surrender fully to Jesus - under normal circumstances, not only do you not have to give them up, you find you live wisely as the Creator said, and when you do, your life usually gets better. But when the world gets hostile that can change in a heartbeat. If you were in the position of John and Betty Stam, would you do it? Real Christians are willing to sacrifice everything for the cause of Christ. I pray you are among them.